Fourth estate failures....

This excellent post at Media Matters blames the Fourth Estate for Americans’ appalling ignorance of world affairs and governmental malfeasance.

In January, we noted that the day after The New York Times broke the story of the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless wiretapping scheme (which has now been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge), the Times and The Washington Post combined to devote 6,303 words to the story, in articles attributed to a total of 12 reporters. By comparison, we pointed out that the day after the Monica Lewinsky story broke in 1998, the two papers combined to run 19 articles totaling more than 20,000 words and reflecting the work of 28 named reporters, in addition to both papers' editorial boards -- in just one day.

[snip]

We concluded by posing some questions to leading news organizations:

1. How many reporters, editors, and researchers did you assign to the Lewinsky story when it broke? How many remained assigned to that story one month later?

2. How many reporters, editors, and researchers did you assign to the NSA story when it broke? How many remained assigned to that story one month later?

3. How do you explain the disparity?

[snip]

After all, it's no coincidence that half the country falsely believes that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. When NBC devotes only 27 seconds to a federal court ruling that the Bush administration has been trampling the Constitution, but spends almost eight minutes on JonBenet Ramsey; when The New York Times assigns a couple of reporters to the Bush administration's illegal actions and more than a dozen to Ramsey; and when CNN ignores the Downing Street memo in favor of the Runaway Bride -- should we really be surprised that the public lacks even a basic understanding of the most important issues of our time?

While I heartily agree, I also feel the criticism could go further.

Americans chose not to exert any effort to stay informed. Alternative sources abound on the Internet for both domestic and international news. Moreover, even before the Internet Public Broadcasting, NPR, Pacifica Radio, In These Times, and other print and broadcast media delivered in-depth and alternative news.

American citizens have the responsibility to stay informed. That they do not is both their own faults and the mainstream media's.

Complete story here.