Mediots, NIGYYSOB and America's future

The best illustration of the reason I don't watch or even own a TV set anymore: The ABC Democratic debate the other night.

I saw the coverage of the debate, and the consensus of the port side of the blogosphere is clear: The debate was little more than an exercise is what my freshman English teacher and Transactional Analysis fan, Mr. Davajohn, used to call "the game of NIGYYSOB" (Now, I've Got You, You SOB!).

*sigh*

OK, this country has BIG problems at the moment: an endless war, recession, inflation, income inequality and stagnation, the environment, the betrayal of our professed values with the rest of the world, the assaults on the Constitution, etc, etc etc... and for fifty plus minutes the two Democrats were compelled to debate minutia like flag pins and bowling. Gotcha, NIGYYSOB!

Why, OH WHY, cannot the so-called mainstream media treat Americans like adults? I remember a time, early in my life, when the media did just that. I was born too late for the McCarthy hearings, and I was in my early teens when media revelations brought down two presidents (Johnson, over the Vietnam, war and Nixon over Watergate). The media treated the American people like adults, even if the pols did not.