No media protection here

A KEY REASON THE NEWS MEDIA EXISTS with special privileges is to be our watchdogs. Reporters' charge is to alert us when something is amiss, when human or natural disasters are about to threaten our welfare.

When it comes to natural disasters, the news media do a commendable job of reporting the obvious, but not a very good one of preparing the public for what might happen, for alerting us to potential difficulties.

When it comes to human disasters, especially catastrophic problems in government and economic matters, the press has failed miserably. For example, Time magazine finally told the public in a recent cover story what only the most astute observers already knew: "The Great Retirement Ripoff: Millions of Americans who think they will retire with benefits are in for a nasty surprise. How corporations are picking people's pockets--with the help of Congress .... "went the copy.

It was an masterful, old-fashioned job of reporting, summing up succinctly the dilemma facing many citizens today. Wrote Time: "The Broken Promise: It was part of the American Dream, a pledge made by corporations to the workers: for your decades of toil, you will be assured of retirement benefits like a pension and health care. Now more and more companies are walking away from that promise, leaving millions of Americans at risk of an impoverished retirement. How can this be legal?"

Where was the print and electronic press when each piece of corporate-biased legislation was being passed by the people elected to serve the public? Why wasn't Congress afraid to pass such legislation? Why does Congress pay attention only to the rich and powerful rather than their blue- and white-collar constituencies? Why has the public been unresponsive? Because the media has decided that news concerning Congress (as well as state legislatures and city councils) is of little interest to its audience. The media has left economic and social issues to a handful of specialized newspapers and magazines.

TV news managers have deemed that economic and social issues are too complicated for the public to grasp. So, they fill their airwaves with car chases, celebrity news, weather, and sports. Newspaper editors, scared to death that their readers are leaving them, occasionally print such stories, but mostly they concentrate on human-interest features, consumer health sections, entertainment and celebrity news, and sports. Hard news holes are shrinking constantly and investigative journalism is something carried out only on occasion. It is too difficult and costly. Besides, it antagonizes advertisers while seldom resulting in a rise in circulation. Ultra-specialized magazines focus on pets, computers, food fashion, and titillating male and female health, beauty, and sex The old-fashioned general-interest magazine that would look into such subjects seems to be dying out. The New Yorker, Atlantic, and Vanity Fair print an expose of government or business corruption every once in awhile, but their audiences are small by comparison to other media.

The result is the perception on the part of the rich and powerful from the Oval Office to the halls of Congress to the corporate boardroom--that no one is watching, that they can do almost anything with impunity. There may be the occasional grand jury investigation or public outcry of government malfeasance, but these usually come long after the damage is done.

Millions of Americans have been robbed in broad daylight while the news media has busied itself with celebrity trials and sensational crime stories. New bankruptcy laws that are almost Dickensian in nature pass without so much as a peep from the public. Corporations steal the public blind under legislation sanctioned by government officials. Companies file for bankruptcy protection, cutting off medical and life-insurance benefits for retirees.

It isn't that this is a new phenomenon. The news media has had some grand moments exposing corruption and helping the public deal with horrific situations. For the most part, though, today's press--once referred to as the fourth estate of government because of its watchdog role-has let down the American public time and time again.

If it seems to be getting worse, it's because there are so many segments of the media that should be telling us, in an accurate and fair manner, what our elected officials are doing before it's too late to take action. It's harder to blame corporations because they make no bones about their mission: make as much money as possible at all costs.

Our elected representatives, however, claim to be on our side. So, it hurts even more when they constantly help their powerful supporters who often buy their offices for them. The theory is that those in Congress and state and local governments will protect us and look out for our interests. Yet, it appears no one is doing the right thing. The joke apparently is on all of us--the old and the sick who will have no recourse in the years ahead and the young saddled with the enormous debt of caring for their impoverished elders for the rest of their lives.