people don't ask the question because they are too busy enjoying their bad news. The truth is that "bad'' news is what the public wants. Then too, every so often someone decides to publish a good news only newspaper and they always fail to sell because they do not suit the public demand.

Why are people interested in bad news? Because the bad news reflects what is wrong with the community in which they live. People, rightly or wrongly, are more fascinated by what is wrong than by what is right. Newspapers reflect a community, warts and all. Leave the news to the public itself and see what happens. Gossip is the public means of transmitting "news'' and we all know what travels fastest, bad news.

Of course this newspaper carries bad news but we do not think we carry it to the exclusion of good news. Nor do we think that we over-emphasise the unhappy things which happen in Bermuda. If things which are wrong or unpleasant or unhappy in a community are not publicised they are never addressed. Much of the progress made in any community is made because the media focuses attention on problems and thus suggests a search for remedies. What would any country be like if the media did not keep watch? Stalin's Soviet Union.

Many years ago this newspaper was severely criticised for suggesting that Bermuda had a growing drug problem. Later, we were criticised for over-emphasis in the early days of the scourge of AIDS. Yet in each case if there had been early action these problems would not be so great today.

Sometimes it seems that those who complain of a lack of good news are not reading it. Their own selectivity and their own interest in bad news causes them some confusion.

Take a random look at Friday's edition of this newspaper. Page One carried a very happy picture and a story about primary school children sending letters off to Santa as part of their writing-to-learn class.

Page Six contained another happy picture and a very good news story about young Stephanie Bain who will get to see life at the top after winning an essay contest with her essay entitled "If I were Premier''.

On Page Eight 11-year-old James Thompson was depicted proudly displaying his winning entry in his school's Christmas card competition. A good Christmas Season story.

Janet Davis and her mother, Rosalie, were very happy in a Page Ten photograph, Janet having triumphed over some heartbreaking odds and become a lawyer.

The lead story in our Taste section combined both Christmas and family togetherness in a very happy and very Bermudian story about the Gibbons family of Somerset and its cassava traditions.

For those who claim that we never run favourable stories about young people, all of these stories involve young people. We also, of course, constantly feature very constructive stories about the achievements of youngsters in our People column.

The above is a sampling but it is generally typical of an issue of this newspaper. Other happy news we run on a regular basis ranges from charity contributions, to church events, to new business ventures.

No, not everything is good news but then there is much which is not good about our world.