Media outlets used to pride themselves on the quality and integrity of their news divisions. They were expected to lose money, their function was to enhance the prestige and reputation of the press.

Today, these high concepts no longer apply, economic forces have turned the news into just another revenue-generating aspect of the business, and the business of media is no longer to inform or educate, or even entertain the public, its to collect advertising dollars from their real clients, the folks who buy commercial time/space. The name of the game is ratings, not reporting.

Even the most honest and dedicated editorial staff is not free from this relentless economic pressure. The point is, if you can't deliver the eyeballs to the folks who pay the bills, then you're going to have to change your format, or they will change you. What you get on local news is increasing fluff, celebrity bios, "human interest", sensationalism, pretty weather girls in lowcut dresses and studly anchors in $100 haircuts reading teleprompters. Its all about game show host sportscasters, fancy graphics, feelgood stories about kittens rescued from trees and heartwarming accounts about retards and crips and maimed vets being cared for by noble charities and heroic philanthropists. And more and more of the news is "reporting" about other programming carried by the station: advertising about advertising.

This kind of mindless commercial pap has pretty much taken over our local news, but its influence was already being spotted infiltrating national news as far back as the 1970s. Its what the film "Network" was all about. And we've commented here before about how much of the internet itself has become simply a vehicle for delivering advertising--or a means of collecting market information from consumers. Everything the commercial mentality touches turns to shit.

Of course, there are still outlets for serious, hard-hiting, in-depth reporting on cable--like FOX news.