Good news gets buried when it doesn’t fit the left’s narrative of perpetual crisis

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When the Bottom Stories Are the Real News
Good news gets buried when it doesn’t fit the left’s narrative of perpetual crisis.
By James B. Meigs
June 11, 2026

Why does negative news dominate our national conversation while positive stories quickly fade away? The traditional explanation is that bad events are newsworthy because they break the norm, while positive trends tend to be gradual. And yes, there’s still truth to that old maxim, “If it bleeds it leads.”

But...

Here are four big trends the press doesn’t talk about enough, but the rest of us should:

Mississippi’s Kids Are Learning

This one isn’t news to Journal readers. “Mississippi, which spends far less per student than almost every other state, is outperforming other states with larger education budgets,” Jason L. Riley wrote earlier this year. At a time when student test scores are plunging nationally, Mississippi and several other Southern states have dramatically turned the tide.

How did they do it? By rejecting left-wing orthodoxy on education. While other states embraced fuzzy “whole language” approaches to reading and reduced testing in the name of equity, Mississippi went back to phonics and strict accountability. And, crucially, the state didn’t let teachers unions derail the project. This “Mississippi miracle” has gotten some coverage. Even the New York Times praised the gains. But it hasn’t provoked a nationwide revolt against the entrenched education establishment. It should.

Crime Is Dropping

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. murder rate dropped almost 15% in 2024, and other major crimes fell as well. Baltimore saw homicides plunge roughly 60% between 2022 and 2025. That’s an astounding victory for the city once known as “Bulletmore, Murderland.”

What happened? The public got sick of left-wing crime policies, for one thing. In the delirious days of the George Floyd protests, activists argued that we needed to “literally abolish the police.” Progressive prosecutors promised to let more defendants go free. Police pulled back. For these and other reasons, the murder rate skyrocketed. Soon voters had enough. They booted some of the worst prosecutors and started backing the cops again. Baltimore launched an aggressive “focused deterrence” program targeting repeat violent offenders for prison, while also giving young men help escaping gang life. The results speak for themselves.

Baltimore’s tough-minded approach should be Topic A in every city hall in America.

The Environment is Cleaner

A recent Gallup poll found that 66% of Americans think the environment is getting worse. In truth, pollution has plummeted. Since 1980, carbon monoxide emissions have dropped 87% percent; sulfur dioxide by 95%; and other forms of air pollution declined by large measures as well—all during a period when the U.S. population grew by around 50% and the economy more than tripled in size. Our lakes and rivers tell a similar story.

The public’s uninformed pessimism suits the activist class. An atmosphere of perpetual crisis helps justify radical policies. So it’s no surprise that, while we were winning the war on pollution, progressives pivoted to the more amorphous threat of climate change....

Americans Are Getting Healthier

I complain a lot about progressive activists. But when it comes to America’s health, left-wing pessimists and MAHA populists are both reluctant to accept good news. And lately, there has been a lot of good news: Death rates from drug overdoses are plummeting. The rise in obesity seems to have peaked. Today, 70% of people diagnosed with cancer will survive for five years or more, up from 50% since the 1970s. Deaths from heart attacks have declined nearly 90% since the 1950s. Overall, after a Covid-era drop, U.S. life expectancy recently reached its highest level ever, at 79 years.

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