Hmmmm. . . .

It seems to me, among other things, that there's a whole chicken-and-egg issue here:

Whether we like it or not, the American public has time and again shown itself to be as interested in polygamists and 10-year-old murder cases as in the drowning of an American city. And it's no use only blaming the media for this: TV producers go where the ratings are, and the trashier the story, the bigger the audience has shown itself to be. Journalists are only one part - though an important one, since they set the tone for the coverage -- of this larger social reality, but it's still a shame that on a day when the nation mourns the deaths of hundreds of its citizens, some newscasts can't seem [to] break away from the trash long enough to give the story its due.

The whole article (from our friends at Columbia Journalism Review) is worth your time.