It's hard to over-estimate the vacuous incompetence of the major television news media.

For example, when the producers of Sesame Street announced that they were introducing an HIV-positive character in the African verion of the show, they simultaneously announced that there would be no such character in the American version. Immediately, both CNN and MSNBC activated viewer polls on whether there should be an HIV-positive character on the American Sesame Street. Hundreds of people called or emailed all day long, offering strong opinions about a non-existent issue. This, of course, gave the talking heads yet another strategy for avoiding talking about actual news stories.

Then there was the anchorwoman who described the memorial service of one of the kidnapped and murdered childen by reporting that the Rodgers & Hammerstein song, "Whenever I Feel Afraid" was sung at the event. "This is, of course," she said soberly, "a very, very sad song." First of all, the title of the song is "Whistle A Happy Tune." But more important, it is one of the most upbeat songs the Broadway composers ever wrote.

If these were isolated incidents, it wouldn't be a big deal, but this kind of inanity goes on at all hours on television news. Sometimes I can't tell the difference between network news and the network news sketches on Saturday Night Live. One topic--the war on terror, the kidnapping of children (a topic that, until recently, was ignored unless the children were white and middle-class), the stock market--is run into the ground, while other news is totally ignored. And the excess time given to the Hot Topic hardly ever goes beneath the surface. For that matter, it rarely reflects fact.

Don Henley put it best: "When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing."