In fairness, they’re just following “if it bleeds, it leads”. That’s not necessarily just an attempt to influence the political process in a particular fashion; it’s also a proven marketing strategy, and they need to sell air time and advertising pages to stay in business.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The media are in the business of selling us what we want to buy. The British had an inquest into who was responsible for Princess Diana’s death. They decided to blame it on the paparazzi, etc. Sorry, they’re one step off. If you want to go past the immediate cause of a drunken driver, then the people who killed Princess Diana are anyone and everyone who bought a newspaper or magazine because it had her picture on it. The people responsible for the complete lack of focus by the media on important issues are people who make their political decisions based on the gender or race or attractiveness or glibness of the candidates instead of on what they say and do about substantive issues. And whose eyes would glaze over and whose thumbs would stab reflexively at the TV remote if someone came on the TV and started talking about the bills that Senator Clinton or Obama or McClain voted for or wrote and what they had to say in debate about them.