Who needs the earth?

• Author: Douglas, Susan
• Position: Boring news stories increase Americans' apathy towards real issues - Column

One recent summer Sunday, The New York Times devoted almost its entire op-ed page to scold the citizenry. The editors entitled this lecture, The Beltway Talks Back. Wake Up America: Apathy Can Be Dangerous. It commissioned ten people -- most of them conservatives, including Norman Ornstein, Zbigniew Brzezinski, David Gergen, and Kevin Phillips, galvanizing types all -- to grab Americans by their lapels and shake them into caring, once again, about public policy.

An especially delicious offering was served up by the ubiquitous Arianna Huffington, head of the "Center for Effective Compassion," her very own charitable organization. She argued that the most pressing issue facing the nation was a proposal to give families a $1,000 tax credit for -- you guessed it -- donations to charitable organizations.

That doesn't get your activist blood surging? How about Lynne Cheney's insistence that we all get out there and fight the "whole-math" movement currently invading our nation's public schools?

The Times did take suggestions from two Washington liberals -- Marian Wright Edelman and Ralph Nader. Edelman came out against Big Tobacco and for children's health care. Nader warned: "Stay bored and government becomes more of an instrument of the rich and powerful against the rest of America."

But why are Americans bored with politics? The Times seems to take apathy as a given, letting the news media completely off the hook. Newsweek -- an increasingly degenerate publication that is now really a cross between Glamour and People -- did not devote one cover story to breaking political or international news in recent weeks. Instead, recent covers featured "The Young Kennedys," Men in Black, and Jenny McCarthy with cigar in hand.

The news media are adroit at attributing ignorance solely to the laziness of the dumbo audience. NBC's Dateline sent a camera crew out to see how many Americans could answer the questions on a citizenship test, like how many stripes there are on the flag, how many members of Congress there are, and so forth. Hardly anyone knew anything, but the NBC anchors, smiling smugly, got a kick out of the fact that people knew all the main characters in Star Wars.

The news media have all but abandoned the news. They are increasingly letting public-opinion polls and "lifestyle" trends determine what gets covered. Time and Newsweek devoted cover stories to What's Cool this Summer and How to Live To Be 100. The networks on any given night will...