Do All Murders Warrant Coverage?

I'm living and working in Baltimore this month and have been introduced to a near epic level of crime, I believe. Not just crime though--death. I knew the murder rate was extremely high in some cities including Baltimore, Detroit, Oakland.. and some others. But it doesn't really sink in until it's truly surrounding you each and every day, at work and at home.

By Thursday of my first week, I had already lost count of the death count. Just 4 days and I had already lost track because there were so many deaths. Mind you, some over these past 2 weeks have not been murders (1 police stand-off led to police shooting and killing the man plus a train hit and killed 2 teenagers), but most have. And the worst one of all has yet to become a murder... a 5-year-old girl shot in the head after a punk 17-year-old fresh out of jail was firing bullets at a rival gang member on a sidewalk one afternoon. The girl is still fighting for her life on life support in a drug-induced coma. Word from the hospital though is that she won't make it; she took the bullet to the worst part of her brain apparently. If she does, they expect her to be essentially brain dead. She is five years old. As for the 17-year-old, he's been arrested 13 times since he was 10, and he had just removed his parole ankle bracelet before firing those shots.

But many times police simply find bodies. No one ever reported shots fired. No one ever reported a killing. No suspects, no motive. In the hood. I've been told the murder count is about 200 annually for Baltimore City. However, that person says it's actually much higher because as with other cities with such high crime/murder rates... they lie. When the Baltimore City Police Department finds a body and toxicology reports come back showing the body had drugs and/or alcohol, in it then even if it has gunshot wounds or stab wounds, the police department classifies it simply as a homicide and not a murder. That accounts for about 200 or more deaths a year. Hence, Baltimore City's murder count per year can be more like 400-500. It's a war zone out there.

With that many bodies turning up, is each one a news story? Or is it like robberies, burglaries, and drug deals which many of us view not to be particularly newsworthy? Part of me feels bad for saying a person being murdered is not even worth an 11 second VO in the newscast (that's how long some of the one's I or the other show producer have written are). Yet, there's so many, is each one a story? What's unique and therefore newsworthy about it? Part of me also wonders if we don't cover it--and in an unintended way glorify it--will there be less of them?

Any ideas?