Making counterterrorism more difficult has only a marginally negative effect on our well-being. That's not because terrorist attacks are insignificant to their targets, but because the chance of being the direct target of an attack is tiny.
Making the proper functioning of our democracy more difficult, in contrast, has a tremendous negative effect.
And that's what the media is doing by sensationalizing some events and ignoring others.
In today's election coverage, for example, every word or action is framed in terms of how it affects the fundamental presidential horse race on which we all are supposed to be laser-focused, rather than how it affects the public. Even fact-checks are presented as a "gotcha."
This has to stop.