The American Spectator

One thing that makes the recent scare even more ridiculous is that lead chromate has been falling out of favor for years, anyway. Newer fields aren’t made of nylon, so it’s no longer needed to prevent fading.

Why, then, is the press scaring people? Perhaps it’s because we like to be scared. Headlines warning of urgent doom are great for circulation, even when they turn out to be untrue. When’s the last time you read an article all the way through that said, “everything’s fine, nothing to see here”?

Sober, non-sensationalist science reporting is bad for business, so it gets weeded out over time. Much like H.L. Mencken’s theory of democracy, news consumers are getting what they want, good and hard.

That’s a real shame. The government is now wasting tax dollars investigating a non-threat because journalists decided to get the lead out.