One reason that MSNBC and CNN (not to mention certain other media) are withering in the ratings is their insistence on hashing over old news even while major breaking stories go undeveloped.
We are supposed to be exercised about the issue of legal memos of six or seven years ago that justified what turned out to be the water boarding of a handful of captured terrorists.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is teetering, Afghanistan and Iraq have seen an upsurge of violence in what used to be known as the War on Terrorism, but now is--I don't know what it's called, maybe "The Struggle Against Man-Made Disasters."
The Islamic Republic of Iran is close to getting atomic weapons, threatening the existence of Israel and working to destabilize Egypt and the Gulf States.
And The People's Republic of North Korea is testing long range missiles.
And never mind about domestic issues of major significance, including runaway public spending and huge domestic changes looming in health care, cloning and energy. Don't tell me these topics aren't as interesting as old DOJ memos.
Rather, it appears that someone is trying to manufacture public interest in old memos in order to distract attention from what is imminent and pressing. The media that are fascinated are not naive, either. It's doesn't seem to bother them that the public really isn't following their lead.
