Why the media has failed to cover what is happening
Not only are journalists a dying breed, but the ones who remain aren't going to dig very deep. We live in an age of sensationalist, soundbite journalism. We will devote thousands of print pages, millions of megabytes, and hours of airtime on a reality show star's most recent scandal, but stories about legislation and budgets are "boring." They're not "sexy."
Some young reporters either don't know how to research a story or don't want to spend the time on it. Where massive layoffs have left every department short-staffed, they may not have time to spend on understanding an issue and crafting a good story about it; so we end up with stories told from press releases and wire copy, repeated over and over by thousands of newspapers, TV networks, websites, blogs, and occasionally, radio stations.
And let's face it, if given the option, 47% of the population would probably choose the reality show scandal over an in-depth study of the legislation that will affect their day-to-day lives, but I don't know if that's because they've been conditioned over the past 25 years to "care" about the gossip or because they just don't want to think about how corporations and the government are stripping the American people of not just their money and their rights, but their hopes and dreams as well.
