When I began working as a journalist, there was something called "slow news". We would refer to "slow news days" when "nothing happened"
On 11 September 2001, while the world lamented the deaths of almost 3,000 people in the United States, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation reported that more than 36,000 children had died from the effects of extreme poverty. The latter was very slow news.
Regular news: A spokesman for Tony Blair "revives the battle of Downing Street" and calls Gordon Brown "stupid, stupid" and a "control freak". He disapproves of the way Brown smiles. This is given saturation coverage.
Slow news: "A genocide is taking place in Gaza," warns Ilan Pappe, one of Israel's leading historians.
Regular news: Blair tells Iran to heed the UN Security Council on "not going forward with a nuclear programme".
Slow news: The Israeli attack on Lebanon was part of a sequence of carefully planned military operations, of which the next is Iran. The US and Israel contemplate the use of tactical nuclear weapons against Iran, even though Iran's nuclear weapons programme is non-existent.
Regular news: "We have been making real progress in areas where the insurgency has been strongest," says a US military spokesman in Iraq.
Slow news: The US military has lost all control over al-Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, including the towns of Fallujah and Ramadi, which are now in the hands of the resistance. This means the US has lost control of much of Iraq.
[Excerpt of an article by John Pilger, Information Clearing House]
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