Rush Can Teach Us a Lot About How Different Perspectives Can Affect How a Story Is Reported

Jack -- relax.
Get busy with the facts.
No zodiacs or almanacs,
No maniacs in polyester slacks.
Just the facts.
Gonna kick some gluteus max.
It's a parallax -- you dig?
You move around
The small gets big. It's a rig
It's action -- reaction
Random interaction.
So who's afraid
Of a little abstraction?
Can't get no satisfaction
From the facts?
You better run, homeboy
A fact's a fact
From Nome to Rome, boy. --Rush (Hi Flash!)

Let's take a look at the local papers to see what's in the news today.

Ah, here's a story in the Pi Press headlined:

More students skip alcohol, meth

Pip pip! Good news! Bully for the youngsters!

Let's see what's in the Strib today:

Alcohol keeps firm grip on state’s teens

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh woe is us! The children - our FUTURE, people! - are on a self-destructive spiraling death ride to hell accompanied by that vile temptress Lady Booze! All is lost! ALL IS LOST!

ANOTHER WAR!

ANOTHER WASTELAND!

ANOTHER LOST GENERATION!

FIE!

FIE!

...

*ahem*

Regaining, my senses and reading both stories, I find that both report binge drinking has statistically remained unchanged amongst our yout's in the past 3 years. Which is I suppose neither good nor bad. It just is.

Depending on your perspective (and desperateness to sell papers), of course.