The word "news" is an Oxymoron

Shouldn't the word "news" be "olds"? The Media generally reports what has happened, not what is happening.  Invariably, the verb is in the past tense.

• The Allies bombed Libya - not the allies are bombing Libya
• Obama was elected president - not Obama is being elected president
• In the obits, Joe Blow died yesterday - not Joe Blow is dying right now
• There is a traffic jam properly is "there was a traffic jam when we last looked"
• Kansas is reporting a such and such a vote for John Smith. What they really mean is that Kansas recently reported such and such a vote.

On some occasions they breathlessly report what is happening

• The president is getting on Air Force one (o.k. how is that immediately interesting?)
• Congress is meeting as we speak to discuss such and such (so? what we really want to know is the results.
• The cars are making a left turn for hours in the Indianapolis 500. Its really only interesting at the moment the first car passes over the finish line.
• The crowd awaits in anticipation of the next celebrity to walk down the red carpet (smirk)

 On some occasions, they report what will happen providing that God is willing and the Creeks don't rise.

• In Dallas, "JFK is going to the airport" (if other events don't intervene)
• The Vikings and Giants will play in Minneapolis (providing the roof doesn't collapse on the stadium)
• We will suppress Al-Qeada and the invasion of Afghanistan will be over quickly the seers predicted since 10 years is quick compared to the eons of time.
• There will be a super perigee on the ides of March making the moon look 25% bigger. While technically correct, it was mostly overcast because of winter storms over cast and it just did not appear at all!
• There will be an earthquake in California in the next week predicts that scientific bastion, The Christian Broadcast Network.
• My favorite is that there is a 20% chance that there will an earthquake in the next 20 years. Doesn't that mean that meaning that there is an 80% chance there won't be? That may be of interest if earthquakes were not random occurrences that can occur at any time and scientists cannot really predict them.

"Latest News! Read all about..." in the past. "News" is almost always "old" before they report it.

À tout à l'heure.
“Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
(Bright)