Boston Wins Asylum Network’s Misery Index

MULTIPLE CITIES: Readers of AOL’s Asylum Network took note of the local news in the top 10 markets for the first week of the year to create the “Misery Index” of the most depressing stories. Stories were broken down into categories including crime, accidents, corruption, sports, weather, etc. Crime typically led the way, but no more so in any of the 10 cities than Boston, where 40 percent stories were about crime. Los Angeles had 18 percent on crime, but beat out Miami’s 20 percent because 10 percent of local news stories in L.A. were on accidents. In Philadelphia, 15 percent of stories covered accidents--the most of any reporting city.

Crime and accident stories comprised 21 percent of Denver’s local newscast stories; 25 percent in Chicago, 8 percent in Atlanta, where snow storms boosted weather and travel stories to 57 percent; Washington, D.C. was 12 percent crime and accidents, with 4 percent devoted to corruption and 23 percent to national security and stories involving the government. New York’s crime-and-accident percentage was 16 percent; health advisories accounted for 8 percent of stories. Rounding out the top 10, Cleveland was 9 percent on crime and accidents.

Asylum has examples of stories that ran in each city at “Misery Index--Which City Has the Most Depressing Local News?”