Arianna gets it right.

Two trials going on here. No wonder big media is not covering the Libby Trial. Big media is on trial also! Why would they bring attention to what an incredibly poor job they are doing?

Arianna points out that big media's credibility is at stake. I wonder if they will do any soul searching? I doubt it. For years the media pendulum has swung toward pure entertainment and profit. It has swung away from actually reporting the news. Conflict sells. Pandering to a political base sells. Human interest fluff pieces sell.

News is boring, expensive, and, most of all, risky. When big media reports actual news, they piss off 30%-50% of the country. Remember, wing-nut radio is painfully divoid of facts and full of spin. If big media reports facts, they get branded as "liberal" because the facts often contadict the BS that wing-nut radio, and cable, have sold middle America. Why piss off a snake, with the truth, when you can report spin, and make money?

Yet news is what our democracy needs so that we are an informed electorate. The people own the airwaves. How do we insure that we get actual news? Do we finance the news so that it is relatively unbiased? That is called Public Radio. You will note that Bush is trying to cut that.

In short, fact based news is critical to our democracy, but not very spin-able, for those attempting to lock up power. No wonder a trial, as fact based and embarrassing as Libby's, gets little coverage. It points out how poorly big media has served our democracy.