I wondered, seizing the snarky Left Coast lens with which I now view New York. Yes, even way out here at the edge of the continent, we see The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal as the gold standard for the newspaper world. But much as we read, rely on, and revere the New York-based media kings, they are occasionally so culturally out of touch with the rest of the United States that it's fine sport for us to skewer them. Certain crimes do not occur until they occur in New York.
Similar incidents happen all over the country and get little coverage.
The concentration of big media in the city sometimes distorts news stories, making them larger than life. Cultural trends never happen until they happen in New York. Even personal life crises only become real when they happen to New York editors. When The New York Times discovers that Spanish lessons are all the rage for Manhattan toddlers, she knows just whose child is now learning how to lisp uno, dos, tres. Or when she notices an authoritative piece on chiropractors, she suspects she knows whose back is acting up.