May, 2014: Two young members of Japanese idol group AKB48 were assaulted by a misguided young man wielding a folding saw during a meet-&-greet publicity appearance. Unsurprisingly, the incident made headline news in Japan for a day or two, relevant points dutifully touched upon with requisite Japanese concern.
Associated Press picked up the story and it went global. MSN news was among those recounting the story, albeit with only cursory mention as an entertainment sidebar and coverage which read more like a monthly AKB newsletter than news report. An attack of this nature is newsworthy, to be sure, but as much for reasons beyond the innocent-young-girls-beset-upon-by-evil, sympathetic slant expounded thus far…