# examples of news stories that got totally obliterated by subsequent, BIGGER news stories **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208 "2011-05-08T23:28:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![SmithCommaJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@SmithCommaJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmithCommaJohn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/61 "2011-05-09T18:15:40Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Yes. And I hear no one knows where Gary Condit was at the time. > > I’m joking, of course. There’s no proof that either Condit or Glenn Beck had anything to do with her death. But it’s important that we ask these questions. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/62 "2011-05-09T19:51:05Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > The second launch of a Saturn V rocket (Apollo 6, unmanned) occurred on the same day as the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. Are you seriously suggesting that the launches of the unmanned Apollos 2, 3, 4, and 5 were big news stories? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/63 "2011-05-09T20:28:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Did anyone think that Condit had to have done his own dirty work? Is there a reason to think that the killer couldn’t have been his hire? As I posted, the killer had a history of committing assaults against women. So how do you imagine this scenario went down? Did Condit hire some guy years earlier and tell him to go out and start raping and murdering women so that if Condit ever met a woman in the future, had an affair with her, and then decided he needed to have her killed, he already have somebody on the payroll with an established track record? Or is your idea that Condit decided to kill Levy and then hired an existing serial killer for the job - presumably by putting a “Help Wanted” ad in the Washington Post? > [@](#): > > Or so they say. I think Ingmar was pinned with the crime he didn’t commit. He was an illegal immigrant, and this is all to protect Condit. I’d think that being sentenced to sixty years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit might be enough motivation for Guandique to talk. But maybe your theory is they couldn’t find anyone that speaks Spanish. I think the interesting point is that Glenn Beck hasn’t said where he was on the night Levy was killed. If he has an alibi, you’d think he’d be happy to produce it. ---
**Author:** ![Dave.B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9f8e36/32.png) [@Dave.B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave.B)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/64 "2011-05-09T22:32:19Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Are you seriously suggesting that the launches of the unmanned Apollos 2, 3, 4, and 5 were big news stories? There was no Apollo 2 or 3 mission. After the AS-204 fire, that mission was subsequently designated Apollo 1 in honour of Grissom, White and Chaffee. They restarted the numbering at SA-501 (Apollo 4) with the first Saturn V launch. It’s a nitpick, but I left it a while and no-one else picked it up. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/65 "2011-05-09T22:56:41Z")
Ooh! I have one! On the night of the OJ Simpson slow car chase in the white Bronco back in 1994, David Hasselhoff had a pay per view concert from Germany. Needless to say, the pay per view event tanked with few if any takers. Hasselhoff said that for years afterward, he couldn’t bring himself to drink any orange juice. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/66 "2011-05-09T23:54:45Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > It was [the day after](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansett_Australia#Air_New_Zealand_merger_and_collapse); in fact Sept 12 Australian time is nearly 2 days after Sept 11 NY time. > [@lisiate](#): > > No, Australia’s ahead of the US thanks to the international dateline. Erm, that’s what I said … ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/67 "2011-05-10T00:20:24Z")
No you didn’t - you said “Sept 12 Australian time is nearly 2 days after Sept 11 NY time,” which is wrong - Sept 12 Australian time is Sept 11 NY time. ie Australia is ahead of NY not behind as you implied. As I post this it’s a quarter past noon on Tuesday 10 May, New Zealand time. At this instant the time on the East Coast of the US is a quarter past 8 pm on Monday 9 May. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/68 "2011-05-10T01:11:49Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > The death of Mary Jo Kopechne by a drunken U.S. Senator and brother of a former President was buried on the inside pages of newspapers (even in his home state of Massachusetts) due to events that were happening 230,000 miles away. It may have been buried in your newspaper, but I happened to be in Europe that summer, and we basically ONLY heard about three stories that happened in the U.S. 1. The moon landing 2. The story you say was buried and way far behind those two 3. Some rock concert in upstate New York ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/69 "2011-05-10T01:45:46Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > We tend to think of them as the same event, but I would say the Twin Towers falling totally overshadowed both the plane hitting the Pentagon and the crash of the 4th plane: I remember distinctly that the paper the next day had the Pentagon story on the second page, and I thought at the time that I could never have imagined “Plane Hits Pentagon” as a second page story. The Onion had “Massive attack on the Pentagon. Page 14” Not sure if this counts, but a plane crashed in Queens, NY, killing 265 people. Second deadliest flight in US history. It happened in November 2001. When it was quickly established it wasn’t terrorism, it seemed to disappear from the news. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/70 "2011-05-10T03:25:54Z")
> [@medstar](#): > > Ooh! I have one! On the night of the OJ Simpson slow car chase in the white Bronco back in 1994, David Hasselhoff had a pay per view concert from Germany. Needless to say, the pay per view event tanked with few if any takers. Hasselhoff said that for years afterward, he couldn’t bring himself to drink any orange juice. Although in all fairness, David Hasselhoff’s pay-per-view concert probably would have been eclipsed anyway by the report that this year’s PTA bake sale had netted a record sixty three dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/71 "2011-05-10T06:53:15Z")
A 5-day span in 2005 saw the deaths of: [ul] [li]Johnny Cochran - March 29th[/li][li]Mitch Hedberg - March 30th[/li][li]Terri Schaivo - March 31st[/li][li]Pope John Paul II - April 2[/li][/ul] The deaths of Cochran and Hedberg probably weren’t major news stories but probably would have gotten at least news coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/72 "2011-05-10T07:13:56Z")
And as I recall, the death of JP2 eclipsed the _other_ Royal Wedding of the Century - Charles and Camilla. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/73 "2011-05-10T07:59:32Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > And as I recall, the death of JP2 eclipsed the _other_ Royal Wedding of the Century - Charles and Camilla. I thought they were keeping that deliberately low key. Didn’t they just show up at a county clerk’s office (or the equivalent) to sign their names? ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/74 "2011-05-10T13:18:10Z")
Newt Gingrich announces for Presidency - (President Newt - just doesn’t sound right). Buried, at least on my headlines, by Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion. And Arnold and Maria split after 25 years of marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/75 "2011-05-10T14:44:27Z")
> [@brianh333](#): > > Charlie Sheen sure was a big topic of conversation for weeks on end, and then Osama Bin Laden passed away. Duh. Not Winning - anymore. Actually it was the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan that knocked Charlie Sheen off the front page. (See how quickly we forget?) ---
**Author:** ![Jaguars](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaguars/32/5879_2.png) [@Jaguars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaguars)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/76 "2011-05-10T22:56:21Z")
[Sergei Prokofiev](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokofiev#Death) Died on the same day as Stalin :smack: Guess his timing was off. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/77 "2011-05-10T23:16:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Although in all fairness, David Hasselhoff’s pay-per-view concert probably would have been eclipsed anyway by the report that this year’s PTA bake sale had netted a record sixty three dollars. Hey! That’s mean! Pretty accurate, though.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/78 "2011-05-11T03:30:44Z")
> [@Jaguars](#): > > [Sergei Prokofiev](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokofiev#Death) > > Died on the same day as Stalin :smack: > > Guess his timing was off. But at least Prokofiev’s death was from natural causes. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/79 "2011-05-11T03:41:31Z")
A lot of this in 2011 -OBL’s death pushed off not just the Royal Wedding but the beatification of John Paul II, Libya, and Syria -The Royal Wedding did the same to JPII, Libya, and Syria -The Japanese earthquake did it to Libya, Syria, and various other places in the Middle East -The Egyptian revolution did this to Tunisia and Algeria -Libya did this to Syria and Bahrain ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208/80 "2011-05-11T04:24:55Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Nobody’s mentioned the most recent example: Osama’s death sure pushed William & Kate’s wedding off the front pages. [Nope.](http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/archive.asp) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-news-stories-that-got-totally-obliterated-by-subsequent-bigger-news-stories/581208.md?page=5)