Here's how it works; the US is a country of more than 200 million people, most of whom have access to at least 50 television channels in their living rooms.
In addition to that, there are three daily newspapers distributed nationally (USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times), the local newspaper, four weekly news magazines, two national tabloids. I could go on but you get the idea.
The point here is that there is an enormous "news hole" to fill and often not enough real news. Which means that most reporters and pundits spend a good deal of time twittering among themselves trying to predict "the next big thing". Speculation about the next big story rarely involves tax reform, missile defence, or overhaul of the social security system. Public policy tends not to capture the public's imagination; for some reason however, certain murders do.
Unseemly antics by politicians do. And mysteries do. Combine all three elements, and the consensus is that you have the next big thing.
The story begins on April 30th, the last day Chandra Ann Levy was seen. Ms Levy is - we shall use the present tense for reasons of respect - a 24year old woman from Modesto, California who came to Washington, DC to begin a 180-day internship with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
A graduate student, Ms Levy's dream was to work for the FBI, say friends.
Like many other bright-eyed interns, Ms Levy fell in love with Washington, a condition known as "Potomac Fever" after the river that flows through the city. In Washington, everyone feels they are at the centre of power. One brushes shoulders with important people. It is, for many, an irresistible intoxication.
Ms Levy lived alone in a condominium near Dupont Circle, a neighbourhood that is about 10 blocks from the White House. A few nights a week, she would work out at a gym that is about a 10-minute walk from her home.
Ms Levy also had a romantic life in Washington, but she told different friends conflicting stories. To one friend she explained she was involved with an FBI man. But to others she confided that she was involved with a politician.
She also told her parents something about the man she was involved with, but she was circumspect and now, they, too, are trying to be discreet in the media whirlwind that has surrounded her disappearance.
Ms Levy had a friendship with a 53-year-old married congressman named Gary Condit, a Democrat from California who is known as a very conservative Democrat. There is much speculation that the relationship was romantic, but the congressman has denied it.
The only thing not in dispute is that Ms Levy was about to return home to Modesto the first week of May. She cancelled her gym membership on April 30th. And she sent her parents an email saying she would soon be coming home.
After being unable to reach her for several days by phone, her parents, Susan and Robert Levy, phoned police. Police found Ms Levy's apartment intact, with luggage packed, her wallet and credit cards on the table. The only thing missing was Ms Levy and her house keys.
This week Ms Levy's distraught parents made their second trip to Washington, appealing for her return, pressing police to upgrade the case from a routine missing persons matter, and urging the congressman to speak out. The Levys want Mr Condit to be more forthcoming about his relationship with their daughter, to tell police why her cell phone showed a number of calls to him in the hours before her disappearance.
For his part, Mr Condit has only spoken with police once and has been described as "evasive". Police, however, say he is not a suspect.
But after digging through her bank records and phone records, and after dismantling her computer's hard drive, they also say they are no closer to an answer. They have sent bloodhounds to comb through Rock Creek Park near her home. They have dredged parts of the Potomac. Nothing.
I was at a social gathering in Washington this week and from what I heard, the next big thing crowd has solved the mystery - and in a way unflattering to the congressman.
The solution they arrived at would certainly qualify as a big story. But there may be something less dramatic afoot, and it would qualify as one of those boring policy stories that rarely get covered.
Since 1999, 558 people have gone missing in Washington, DC, a number of them young women whose cases were not covered by the media because there was no speculation they were involved with a married politician. In 1999, there were 8,067 crimes per 100,000 residents reported here.
Washington, DC happens to be a dangerous place. Especially if you are not a news story.