Thank you (again) Elizabeth Edwards

Bravo to Elizabeth Edwards for taking on the media in her op-ed piece in the Sunday New York Times. I used to be the political producer for local TV news and I am also wishing that the national folks would just do their jobs.  Edwards rightly points out that the campaign coverage is all so much focused on trivia, the issues have been all but forgotten. I agree with James Fallows that it was the most important story in the Sunday NYT. The op-ed should be required reading in every newsroom, and the graphic of the remote that so clearly demonstrates what political news on TV is all about these days should be shamefully examined.  A day later, it remains the #1 "Most Blogged About" on the list the Times maintains and #7 in "Most Emailed".

I got out of the TV News business in the early 90's, just as it was starting to go almost totally tabloid. I watched the last Obama-Clinton debate in ABC (the network where I worked for more than 12 years) and while I was not quite as horrified as Hendrik Hertzberg in the New Yorker,  I thought it was pretty bad. Not because they were so tough on Obama, but the subject matter and repeated questions on all this "junk news" bordered on the ridiculous.  I don't think all these stories reflect on the character of the candidates as much as the overhwhelming drive in the media to give their readers and viewers what they want , as opposed to what they may possibly need.  It's even more horrifying to believe that the American public could be that shallow.

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