And the band played on: covering the economic crisis

[I]n the month preceding the week of Sept. 15, which saw the Lehman bankruptcy, the Merrill Lynch sale, the AIG bailout and large drops in share prices, the proportion of the news hole devoted to the economy reached a low for the year, filling only 4.8 percent of the time on television and radio and space in the print and online media.

The press was mesmerized by Sarah Palin and Joe the plumber and failed to report on the looming economic crisis until the crisis was upon us and could not be ignored any longer. Why? I suppose it is because they do not believe their readers and viewers to be intelligent enough to stay tuned while they discuss meaningful issues - or maybe they are not intelligent enough to report on meaningful issues. Either way, it's a major reason the mainstream media are losing credibility and audience share to the internet.