News media is MIA on vital issues

NO MATTER HOW AMBIVALENT or angry Americans seem to get, the one constant belief is that the news media will act the role of the Fourth Estate, protecting them from the greed and excesses of special interests both in and out of government. Most surveys show that people expect the press to be the watchdog on matters that impact the fives of citizens. At the very least, they feel the media should inform them about important legislation or Executive actions before it is too late to act.

So far in the 21st century, the news media are missing in action. They either have ignored or been too involved in trivial journalism to pay attention to major actions on the part of government and special interests that have been detrimental to the health and welfare of the great majority of their readers and viewers. Special interests are having a field day passing laws heavily weighted in their favor while only small pieces of the media have been reposing this back to the public.

For example, the personal bankruptcy bill is one of the most unfeeling, mean-spirited pieces of legislation ever presented by Congress to a president. The credit-card industry, with its powerful lobbyists in Washington, is behind this horrendous injustice. As Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter put it, "First Congress puts a half trillion in budget deficits a year on the plastic for our grandchildren to pay off. Then it sells out the average American to predatory lenders, who have the run of the place. History should remember the 109th as the Credit Card Congress."

This issue should have been trumpeted on every local TV news program and newspaper in the country. When it comes to personal bankruptcy, most citizens think it is the end result of foolishness and avarice on the part of their spend-hungry neighbors--not so! Surveys conclusively show that those who declare personal bankruptcy do so because they have lost a job or encountered a major medical or family problem and have no further recourse. About 50% of those who file for bankruptcy do so because inadequate health care insurance ushered them to the poor house.

Almost everyone knows of a family who has suffered in this economy by losing a job or using up savings to pay exorbitant medical bills. The only recourse for these hard-working, innocent individuals has been to file bankruptcy when it became impossible--no matter how hard they worked or tried to pay off their debts. Now, they will suffer even more.

The cruelty of the situation should have been front-page news: First the credit-card industry spends millions on advertising to get the public to accept their cards. Then they charge interest and late fees as high as 100% a year. With this legislation, when a person loses his or her job or gets a major illness and cannot pay the stratospheric interest--even though they might have paid back the original debt in addition to some interest--they no longer can file for bankruptcy, but must suffer further humiliation and hardship. As Alter suggests, "Although the Bible clearly bars usury, all of the big congressional Bible thumpers sided with their corporate contributors."

Amendments that would have protected anyone declaring bankruptcy because of medical reasons or capped interest at 30% (yes 30%!) were defeated--without a murmur from the bulk of the popular news media, who had more important matters to be concerned about, such as the Michael Jackson trial or a husband trying to let his wife die with dignity after years in a coma.

A cynic might point out that the recent glut of media monopolization by big corporations has had a devastating effect on the press' watchdog mission to protect and inform the public. What big business really wants to offend a government that has given it so much for so little (such as new high-definition channels worth billions for nothing)? What big business wants to offend any special interest? What most businesses want is not to cause any disturbances or rock the boat--the wish is to keep enjoying the lucrative status quo.

Veteran TV journalist Bill Moyers calls the decline in American journalism the biggest story of our time: "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."

The proof of the news media's devastating failure to keep the public informed can be found in the FCC decisions rewarding the rich and influential and ignoring everyone else; in the passing of the Patriot Act, which takes away fundamental rights from U.S. citizens; and in the personal bankruptcy act, which denies any final hope to those who find themselves falling deeper and deeper into debt.

The Founding Fathers gave the Fourth Estate special rights because they wanted an unrestricted free press to keep the public informed and involved. The media should be completely ashamed that they have failed to do this in a very fundamental way--and we are all victims because of it.