But when it comes to cyberstalking, there's little justification for the hysteria. How We Talk About New Crimes and New Victims, had the sense to check out the stalking situation and found it to be wildly overblown. The news media, in Best's analysis, is perpetually in need of new, attention-grabbing stories, a new crime wave or menace. Frenzy and melodrama are the very stuff of life for reporters and editors. They sell newspapers and magazines, drive TV ratings higher and alarm the public.
Bureaucrats churn out reports like beavers building a dam.
Activists and professional advocates make themselves available to the new marketplace of victims. This iron quadrangle has already taken real-life hostages. The alleged number of stalkers in the U.S. is 200,000. That number has been floating around for eight years. The reporter who first reported it in 1992 can't exactly recall his source.