Network news seems determined not to offend, educate or bore anyone. I'm tired of sensationalism, feel-good stories of noble citizens overcoming handicaps and other adversity and kittens rescued from trees and similar human interest pap.

The news is getting more like "Infotainment Tonite", or "Excess Hollywood", all pop culture and blatant plugging of the network's prime time schedule. I don't think the news is politically biased, on the contrary, it seems terrified of controversy as much as it is enamored of scandal (not the same thing!) but it is bland and neutral and avoids complexity.

I was amused while visiting my super left-wing cousin in Tampa this weekend to find that he is as convinced that the media is a propaganda arm of the right wing as some of our conservative posters here believe just the opposite. In fact, many of the arguments both sides use to breathlessly illustrate this have a definite ring of similarity to them. But the news is not politically biased, it's worse than that, it is politically empty. There is no discussion of issues, just of campaign strategy and, as we have seen, slips of the tongue and verbal stumbles. Even the hour-long news magazines seem to be slipping into the same popular format. Only "Frontline" on PBS seems to be resisting the trend, in fact, PBS and NPR are doing an outstanding job, but its funding troubles are definitely starting to show in program quality.

Network news used to be a loss-leader for the big media outlets, they were not expected to make money, but were considered prestige items and were operated almost pro bono, in order to enhance the reputation of the broadcasters. Over the last few years there has been a decline in real reporting and an increase in human interest. Like everything else, journalism has become commodified, and marketed. It is obvious that the programming has been modified to bring in more viewers, and it is clear to me that the news is now just programming designed to sell commercial time. This is painfully obvious in local news, even in the big city markets, which convinces me it isn't my own political biases kicking in but a general pattern: TV news is now a business and it doesn't care about anything except making money. And in that sense at least, my lefty cousin has got it right.