We don’t make life and death decisions in the newsroom, but we are frequently called upon to make decisions about life and death. In a one-week span in Fort Dodge, there was a fatal fire, a young man whose life ended with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a stabbing in which the victim later died. There are general policies about what we cover and how, but we consider each event individually. Each is a matter of judgment — and it’s not always the same person’s judgment since news happens 24 hours a day. Sometimes we get it right; sometimes we wish we could reconsider. The damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t factor is always at work. If you have too much detail, are you invading the victim’s or the victim’s family’s privacy? If you don’t have enough detail, are people complaining that The Messenger didn’t provide them with the news? One commonly used definition of news is that it’s what people are talking about. The Messenger doesn’t control that.