Here's the bad news about good news

There is a Chinese proverb about how good news never gets past the door, but bad news will travel a thousand leagues away.

That's the world we media folks live in, where all the bad news makes it out the door.

Overall, it may be the No. 1 complaint I have heard over the years, that we always focus on bad news.

For that sin I plead guilty, and throw myself on the mercy of the court of public opinion.

It is something we all do. We spend far more time talking about what is wrong in life than what is right.

Go to any business or government meeting, and more time is spent discussing problems than successes. Enter into any conversation with almost anyone, and I'd be willing to bet the majority of words are spent on what you would consider bad news.

Part of this is guilty pleasure. Humans like bad news. In some ways, it helps us feel good about ourselves.

But another important part is our desire to aspire to a better life, and you can't do that without fixing what's wrong.

That's why countless hours will be spent agonizing over what is wrong with the world, while the good news is delegated to back pages.

I know there are some people out there who think this is all some media plot to hide the good news. But take a look at what we get back. In this business, when you are doing a good job, the letters and comments run about 10 complaints for every compliment. The most negative stories generally attract the most readers, and the most comments. I wish I could say it's just us journalists, because we could fix that.

I went to the Internet this week to hunt out good news. Did you know there are Web sites that claim to just publish good news? Do a search for "good news" and you will find them.

At first glance, I saw a number of stories that I had already seen from the "bad news" media, like the guy who bit the panda bear that bit him. There was also a story about crocodile hunter Steve Irwin's memorial service. Getting killed by a stingray doesn't seem like good news to me. I guess the definition of good news can vary a bit.

These sites are a good idea, but we don't want to go overboard on the good news so much that we cover up the bad. We wouldn't want news coverage of the sinking of the Titanic to focus on how roomy and comfortable the lifeboats were that night.

We can't ignore the bad news, but we definitely need to do more to seek out those stories that inspire. They are not that easy to find, and sometimes even harder to report. I know several people who are inspiring to me who would never sit down for an interview, or want any publicity for themselves. Their modesty is part of what makes them inspiring.

There are many ordinary people who do inspiring things every day. For most of us, our parents are probably the most inspirational. I think back every day to the hard work and sacrifices made by my parents as they sought to give me the best chances in life that they could. I only hope I can live up to that standard when it comes to raising my child.

And what can be more inspiring than children? Their energy and innocence remind us that life is not all bad. My daughter can erase an exhaustingly negative day with just a smile.

But if I wrote about these inspiring moments every week, I doubt very many of you would read it. Too much of a good thing isn't good.

I once heard a psychologist say that in a healthy relationship, there should be two positive comments for every negative one. But she also admitted that was pretty hard, if not impossible, to accomplish.

We all need to work hard to appreciate the good in this world, and balance it against the bad. It may never hit that 2:1 ratio, or even 1:1. For news media, we still need to report the news, the good, bad and ugly, and there is a lot of bad and ugly out there. But we needn't become so cynical as to think good news doesn't exist.

I'm sure if we keep failing on this point, you will tell us, and not in a "good news" way, either.

• Kirk Caraway is editor of nevadapolitics.com, and also writes a blog on national issues at http://kirkcaraway.com.