Can you imagine the uproar if it was the 2nd amendemnt that was suspended because our government suspects terrorists of purchasing a larger number of guns in the United States? I don't think the press could ingore that one.

Their responsibility to the public notwithstanding, media companies are just like any other--profit drives the bottom line, so they're inclined to give the public what they think the public wants. One could easily have predicted the scorecard on media coverage based on late night talk show monologue fodder. Obama's bowling score, would naturally be an easy target. Yoo and the torture memo? Not very sexy.

I work for a company that once adopted (unofficially, mind you) the slogan "we're in the business of making money." In other words, they didn't care much about the piddling details; they just wanted to sell, sell, sell their product. If all you care about is selling the product, then you probably don't invest as heavily in other factors that may ultimately affect the bottom line, such as design, quality control, customer support, etc.

I think of media in the same way: (Imagine J. Jonah Jameson) Let's put some good, sexy stuff on the screen. Torture? Old news. Appointed official lying to the public? Cliche. Civil rights being eroded? Not sexy enough. We're in the business of making money, after all, and sexy sells.

Obama and his wife are all those things and not all Democrats hate America, but many of the left-over elitist lefties who have propped up Obama with their cash do hate America. Just ask them.

The media is a joke. No self-respecting person listens to the rantings and ravings of cable TV talking heads anymore; listens to what crap the White House puts out; or has paid attention to George W. Bush for the last 8 years.

"I have sadly realized that most people are more interested in "American Idol" and Katie Couric's love life"

What? who is couric doing now?

People like Glenn have trained me to be skeptical. I don't subscribe to NEXIS, I went to their site to try and determine what publications they index. It must be some kind of trade secret, I couldn't find it.

I then turned to a tool that all of us can access; google news search (http://news.google.com). I performed the same searches that Glenn did, and the results are even more pronounced:

"Yoo and torture" - 169

"Mukasey and 9/11" -- 49

"Yoo and Fourth Amendment" -- 32

"Obama and bowling" -- 812

"Obama and Wright" -- 17,923

"Obama and patriotism" - 1,724

"Clinton and Lewinsky" -- 3,194

I expected this to be less pronounced; web surfers can choose any source and don't need another story on Reverend Wright. We come for information we can't get anywhere else, I guess I was wrong.

Thanks Glenn

The American public deserve some blame too; they're (if we are to assign en masse guilt) the ones that make "American Idol" such a hit, and that buy the pabulum such as People magazine and worse at the checkout counters.

Many people just don't give a damn, and just want the gladiators and lions, while the Goths and Huns are at the gates.

We need to change that dynamic as well; however, it does seem to be changing as the damage starts hitting closer to home for more and more people....

Cheers,

You are a little late catching on. The powers claimed by the administration are in fact less than those claimed by the Wilson administration. If you think that the attorney-general lied about how 9/11 happened then I guess you have to accept that FDR's administration was less than forthcoming about Pearl Harbor.

It has taken many parts to bring the US to this crisis point and it includes the criminals Bush and Cheney and the spineless, useless, gutless Democratic Party. The Democratic Party who refuses to impeach theses criminals.

So when the DP asks me to vote for them this coming November, I will say : A vote for your spineless and gutless party will only encourage your cowardly behavior.

The Media has its finger UP the PULSE of America, and the Americans who ENJOY hearing about this MINDLESS & MEANINGLESS PSYCHOBABBLE CHATTER instead of MEANINGFUL & TIMELY ISSUES & COVERAGE SICKENS ME TO MY STOMACH!!!!! But, as Glenn Greenwald has so skillfully opined, this is NO JUSTIFICATION for the Media "reporters" to go ahead and give the public the news they WANT to hear! What is GOOD for you may not necessarily be the most PALATABLE news, BUT IT MUST BE HEARD, like shots of the mangled bodies of innocent Iraqi bystanders of our deadly illegal invasion & occupation of Iraq, flag-draped coffins of our service personnel returning from Iraq as corpses, unending criticism of the criminal activities of Bush, Cheney & Bushland Uber Allies, concerted efforts to make these criminals pay for their high war and civil crimes, realizing that we Americans as a whole are responsible for putting into power the criminals Bush & Cheney and their festering despotic rule, and we Americans being told by our own Media that WE WERE WRONG & MISTAKEN TO PUT SUCH TIN-POT PETTY DESPOTS LIKE Bush & Cheney INTO POWER! That last piece about telling Americans that we were WRONG & MISTAKEN is perhaps the BITTEREST and HARDEST PILL TO SWALLOW, we Americans DON'T LIKE TO ADMIT THAT WE WERE WRONG IN OUR CHOICE & DECISION TO ELECT THE MURDERING CRIMINALS Bush & Cheney!!!!! To PUNISH them would mean an ADMISSION of OUR MISTAKE, so we TRUE AMERICANS MUST STAND UP, CONFESS OUR SINS, & EXECUTE Bush, Cheney & Bushland Uber Allies IN ORDER TO EXPIATE OUR OWN SINS!!!! YEAH!

Exactly. But what can we do? Just not tuning in doesn't seem to be the answer. I have given up watching MSNBC but evidently all the self-reverential hosts still babble on.

So what's our plan for better news coverage?

"However, if you want something to change you have to affect the bottom line. boycott their advertisers, be loud and vocal about the company that sponsors the show or has space in the paper. corporate media is mostly advertisements with some commentary thrown in."

Newpapers only print news to fill the blank pages they were unable to sell to advertisers.