“I think we write trend stories because we think they’re news,” Shafer said in a phone interview. “We write bogus trend stories because we’re wrong, we’re lazy, and we’re mentally tardy.”
Last night I was driving and listening to the radio, and the BBC did a piece on koala bear calls. It wasn't relevant to my life in the least, and yet, I appreciate getting some of those stories.
My guess is that the attempt to make all news relevant has to do with confusion between marketing and readership. Relevancy is a must for advertising. It's not a must for content.