Crisis by any other name. (Comment).

LAST week's most important news story was the mess over at the ports. In terms of an event that had the greatest consequences of the largest number of people, both locally and around the world, it wasn't even a contest.

Last week's most well covered story was the shooting spree in the Washington, D.C. area. Frightening, mysterious, sensational and located in the second largest concentration of journalists in the country, this too wasn't even a contest.

At the risk of generalizing about the way the news business works, there are usually two types of stories - ones that reporters and editors want to cover and ones that they are obliged to cover. Any thing involving crime, sex and politics usually fall into the first category, while most everything having to do with the economy winds up in the second.

Such editorial decision-making is a big deal because it helps shape perceptions and with it, viewpoints. That's too bad because by the end of last week, the prevailing message going out was that the dockworkers were back at work and the crisis-if indeed there ever had been a crisis-was over.

Never mind that the two sides remain miles apart from cutting a deal, The media world is pretty selective about the types of stories it chooses to saturate and international trade isn't about to make the cut.

Actually, the port story never really had a chance to make it big on several counts. It certainly wasn't telegenic enough for the broadcast types; a bunch of angry dockworkers and ships stuck in the Pacific Ocean aren't much match against cops in search of a mad killer.

The lockout's effects also haven't been quantifiable enough. All week long economists were throwing around $1 billion a day, then $2 billion a day, but these turned out to be guesses and besides, no one seemed to know what such numbers really meant anyway.

Perhaps most important, there was a "too big to fail" mindset - basically the notion that unlike a terrorist threat, where you're dealing with crazy people liable to do anything to get their way, a labor dispute, no matter how ugly, eventually gets sorted out because it's in everyone's best interest.

Compare the modest attention on the ports with the hour-by-hour "team" coverage of this summer's baseball talks. You would have thought that the future of the republic was hanging in the balance. No surprise, really, because sports - and show business - long have been the news media's spoiled kids and as such, they get covered to death.

The ports, meanwhile, are routinely ignored because it is considered inherently boring, many miles from most newsrooms, and with its nontalkative, non-glamorous players, confusing and difficult to cover. So it should come as no surprise that when a big story finally comes along, the reportage is superficial and simplified, even by the biggest papers. It also should come as no surprise that coverage is quickly receding into the back pages.

But while the TV crews are back from San Pedro and the network anchors are again focusing on Iraq, there is still plenty of action at the ports - namely a contract to iron out and dozens of boats hat require unloading. There are also truckers and wholesalers and warehouse companies that will be taking a pretty big hit from the stoppage at a time when they can least afford it.

An important local economic story? You bet.

A well-covered story? Not likely.

Mark Lacter is editor of the Business Journal.