The Editorial (pasted below) from tomorrow's London Observer is quite at odds with the reaction of the American media to Mr. Stewart's program.  The reactions of the rporters on the Friday PBS News Hour as well as Howard Kurtz's insipid column in the Washington Post are rather typical it appears.  The media line is that they did run stories but no one paid attention. Little Howie alleges that the Post did report on the growing scandal.  It is true that he can point to a few stories here and there, BUT if the Post  had put half the effort into the development of the governmental actions which led to the crash it put into Watergate (and taken half the heat Ms. Graham did then), then we may not be in the fix we are in.  The failure of regulators to regulate was literally in the Post's  back yard and they did not see it.  There was a massive failure by the media to fulfill the public trust they keep bleating about.  They did nothing to fulfill the trust placed in them by the adotpion of the First Amendment two hundred years ago.  In the 1920's and early 1930's there were real journalists who were exposing the corruption which led to the Great Depression.  They were also exposing the efforts of the reactionaries to preserve their privilege and attempt to derail the reforms of FDR.  Howie and his journalistic paramours should spend less time in The Palm and more time digging into the truth.  

Satire's power

• Editorial
• The Observer, Sunday 15 March 2009

There are many checks and balances in US democracy. But they failed to halt a collective financial mania resulting in economic catastrophe. Oops!

One of the checks that failed was the financial media, which inflated the bubble that it should in all conscience have pricked. That charge was put last week with devastating effect by US TV satirist Jon Stewart to Jim Cramer, host of popular personal finance show Mad Money. Cramer was routed. Stewart demolished him with the tenacity of Paxman and the ruthless satirical edge of ... who? There is no British equivalent. That is a shame. The checks and balances that failed America failed here, too, and when that happens good satire becomes more than comedy - it is a safety net for democracy.