Disasters are now too common to be newsworthy

Nearly two weeks have passed since a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling toxic chemicals into the water and air, and all anyone seems to be able to say is that it is under-discussed.

That observation is by no means partisan. “This is one of the deadliest environmental emergencies in decades and no one is talking about it,” Jamal Bowman, a Democratic congressman from New York, tweeted on Monday. A few hours later, J.D. Vance, Ohio’s junior Republican senator, echoed those sentiments on Fox. “The entire country, the media complex, the leaders of this country have decided to disregard the people of East Palestine,” Vance told Tucker Carlson, adding that, “if this story has been covered at all,” the coverage has been deflected from addressing the terrifying implications of the spill.

Neither of these statements—or the hundreds of press releases to the same effect that activists of all stripes have blasted out since the spill—is entirely false.