[chongli]

Yeah, and people likewise discount the deaths caused by cancer and heart disease because these are diseases of old age. People generally think humans aren't supposed to live forever, so they see old people dying of these diseases as "natural".

[waterhouse]

"Natural" perhaps. "Not really possible to prevent" is something like a steelmanned version of it; maybe something like an artificial heart could keep people alive, but maybe such people's bodies are usually worn down enough that the best medicine in the world couldn't keep 90% of them alive for 5 more years.

This brings me to the question: What are the data on deaths in certain age brackets? If, say, media coverage was proportional to the number of people under 18 or under 25 who died, or perhaps some sum of "f(age(person))" where e.g. f(under 18) = 1, f(18-25) = 0.9, f(65+) = 0.01... then that would be a very striking result. (I guess if the smallest weight is 0.01, then no disparities exceeding 100x, such as the terrorism ~4000x disparity, can be explained.)

Edit: Well, here we go. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/leading_causes_of_dea...

Unintentional Injury is cause #1 for ages 1-44. Suicide is #2 for 15-34, #3 for 10-14, and less for higher ages. Homicide is #3 for 15-34 and 1-4 (!), and #4 for 5-14. Cancer is #2 for 5-14 and 35-44, #4 for 1-4 and 15-34. Congenital Anomalies is #1 for <1, #2 for 1-4, and #3 for 5-9. Terrorism isn't listed, although if it were counted it might go under homicide. Heart Disease is #5 or less for 0-34, and #3 or higher starting at 35+.

If you figure that the news media only cares about young people, it goes some distance towards explaining matters...