More evidence of the pathetic state of our media

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I am watching Real Sports With Bryant Gumble on HBO. This is a show that usually covers sports with some sort of social implication but not usually a politically hardhitting way. It even has the god awful Bernard Goldberg. This week though they are spending half the hour on a story about asmtha and sports. So far, pretty usual, but then they take on the Bush Administration. It is the type of hard hitting report complete with documents and interviews showing the connection between the Bush Administration and polluters. It is a damning report.

So why isn't this on Dateline (which has 3 hours a week) or 20/20 and PrimeTime Live (2 hours a week)? If you take out 60 Minutes there is literally no place on standard TV where these types of reports are regularly aired. It isn't as if these reports can't be done, it is that they won't be done. We shouldn't have to watch HBO (Real Sports) or MTV whose True Life did a wonderful hour on living on the minimum wage to see reports like these. It wasn't always this way. Our parents and grandparents used to watch the likes of Murrow and Cronkite doing documentaries on racism and poverty. This was back before there were literally whole stations devoted to news. Imagine a CNN or MSNBC that devoted just 2 hours a day (1/12 of the total programing) to programs such as those. It might even make up for providing platforms for the likes of Ann Coulter and Glen Beck.

The networks have some of the most valueable realestate in America. The get it for free. We shouldn't have to go to pay TV to find hardhitting stories about our government.