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It's traditional in journalism for everyone to talk at the beginning of an election cycle about how they're not going to descend into horse-race journalism and, instead, focus on meaningful, issue-centered coverage. And then everybody forgets all about it and wallows in the gutter.

Robert Reich, the former secretary of labor, hits the nail on the head with this blog item:

"Does Russert really believe he’s doing the nation a service for this parade of spin doctors talking about potential spins and the spin-offs from the words Obama used to state what everyone knows is true? Or is Russert merely in the business of selling TV airtime for a network that doesn’t give a hoot about its supposed commitment to the public interest but wants to up its ratings by pandering to the nation’s ongoing desire for gladiator entertainment instead of real talk about real problems. ...

"Bitter? You ain’t seen nothing yet. And as much as people like Russert, Carville, Matalin, Schrum, and Murphy want to divert our attention from what’s really happening; as much as HRC and McCain seek to make political hay out of choices of words that can be spun cynically by the mindless spinners of the old politics; as much as demagogues on the right and left continue to try to channel the cumulative frustrations of Americans into a politics of resentment – all these attempts will, I hope, prove futile. Eighty percent of Americans know the nation is on the wrong track. The old politics, and the old media that feeds it, are irrelevant now."

The networks aren't even trying. If you can stand it, try watching any of the cable networks for 24 hours and count the actual news stories they cover. It's the same shallow crap repeated over and over with the same faux astonishment.

It doesn't have to be this way. While traveling in southeast Asia over the last couple of weeks I watched a bit of CNN International, which actually covers news now and then, as well as the BBC and a couple of foreign-language channels that I can't follow very well.

But I also, much to my horror, found Headline News on cable in Phuket, Thailand. We're actually exporting Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace.

Journalism? Public service? The networks aren't even trying. It's just a puppet show aimed at getting ad dollars.

Here's another example of how the Internet has shifted power from institutions, and how that can be a good thing. While the Internet certainly has empowered whispering campaigns and hate bloggers, it also has enabled us to get to the truth behind badly reported news, if we care enough. Today I found the full Jeremiah Wright sermon from Sept. 16, 2001, in which he made the "inflammatory" statement "America's chickens have come home to roost." It turns out he was quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force. And the focus of the sermon is quite different from what you've heard. Watch it all.