(Cross-posted at the Chicago Boyz site)

Broadcast news is now a cost and entertainment driven service. Stories that give good video will get play, while more meaningful stories which don't show well get shuffled to the back. Hence the networks are all over the plane crash in Austin, and the worker trapped in a hole at the casino construction site. A few months ago balloon boy was the biggest story on air for days.
Meanwhile, wholesale prices jump 1.4% in January. How many hours did CNN and FOX spend on that story? (I'm sure they covered it, but not with the same vigor).
The deepest issue with this nationalization of media coverage was noted above - there is only so much news consumption time, and if we spend it on stories which have no effect on us at all, we have a lost opportunity cost for stories which have large impacts on our lives.
Show of hands - who has read or watched coverage of your local governing body in the last three months (town/city council, county commissioners or county executive meeting, whatever is your first line of control). I believe the greatest amount of freedom comes with decentralization of government, but if people are unwilling to exercise control over local events, the freedom is lost. Spending an hour a week watching coverage of a Las Vegas shooting instead of watching your local leaders consider tax increases and service changes is an abdication of your role as a citizen.