Man bites dog (journalism)

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The phrase Man bites dog and the related phrase Dog bites man are used to describe a phenomenon in journalism, in which an unusual, infrequent event is more likely to be reported as news than an ordinary, everyday occurrence. This can be explained by the fact that the news media generally consider an event more newsworthy if there is something unusual about it. On the other hand, a situation which is completely normal is unlikely to be taken as newsworthy. The result is that it may seem that news items which carry titles such as "Man Bites Dog" occur more often that those which carry ones such as "Dog Bites Man". The remarkable thing is that the observation can be made even though examples of the latter occur far more frequently than the former.

The phrase comes from a quote attributed to New York Sun editor John B. Bogart: "When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news."^[1]

Serious analogies to this phrase are You never read about a plane that did not crash, or You don't hear about the laws that a politician did not break.

A slightly different meaning is sometimes used in descriptions of political conflicts that are perceived as being one-sided or biased. In such cases, the news agency accused of the bias may also be accused of treating the party it ostensibly favors as the Dog and the party it ostensibly disfavors as the Man. The result of this is that it may report attacks carried out by one camp against the other camp, but not the converse.