My personal take on this is that it is not only the American newspapers that hunt for bad news. It's typical for all mass media. But then again it's only pragmatism on their side because history has proved that people are attracted by the sight of pain and suffering from Ancient Roman gladiator fights to nowadays "reality" programmes.
Yeah, people obviously want to read that kind of news.

Why do I care to write this long commment? Because I want to post this awesome little guy here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPubhxZXC9g

It just made my day.