If it bleeds, it leads.

That's a journalism commonplace. And they also note that deaths rank the closer they are to home. So one dead here is worth 100 dead elsewhere. 

Even so, I'm often puzzled why a death I know occurred nearby isn't reported, but a death far away is. It's usually due to the drama. A car crash is boring, but a fall from a mountain top dramatic.

And journalists are taught that race matters. A white death is worth ten people of colour. Why? I suspect it's political.