The "America: love it or leave it" crowd loves Fox News, which bills itself as America's news channel. Rational news consumers know that Fox is a Republican conduit. How bad is it? Imagine sitting at the Fox News conference table as the editors talk about the news of the day:

EDITOR 1: OK, what are we leading with tonight? Ten more U.S. soldiers dead today from a roadside bomb. Ya wanna go with that?

EDITOR 2: Well, Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend turned up today. He said that Anna was over-prescribed prescription drugs. We also have some new footage of Anna Nicole in a bikini.

EDITOR 1: OK, screw the war, we're going with Anna Nicole Smith tonight.

This conversation must have gone down at Fox News. According to a new study, Fox devoted more airtime to the Anna Nicole Smith soap opera than the Iraq War which is giving Memorial Day new meaning and placing this country at greater risk of another terror attack. Of the three major cable news networks, Fox covered the Iraq War the least and Anna Nicole the most. Fox, by the way, is obsessed with the theory that most American media is too liberal and does not support the troops.

Four years ago, a few months after the Iraq War started, a survey established that Fox News viewers were less informed about current events than other news consumers. The study also drew a connection between this misinformation and support for the war. We have to bury our children because a substantial portion of the American public does not know what's going on. This same segment of the population is most vocal in support of President Bush and the war. Just tune into Fox News or right wing talk radio for the evidence.

In 1985, Neil Postman wrote a book called "Amusing Ourselves to Death." His point was that television's obsession with celebrity and trivia was destroying our national discourse on current events. Twenty-two years ago, there was no Internet and only one cable news outlet, CNN. Today the national discourse is getting much worse. This country was not at war in 1985, though the country did elect a clown in the form of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and gave him another four years in 1984. Today, we have taken many steps backwards, handing the presidency to a man both intellectually and temperamentally unsuited for the position.

The media does not speak to us; it speaks and yells at us. Most of the news on television is crap, devoid of context or any meaning.The presidential campaigns have devolved into name-calling and propaganda as the candidates appeal to the lowest common denominator. I have no doubt that if the media took its job seriously over the last seven years this country would not be in Iraq and Bush would have been removed from office by now. Today, more people know about Bill Clinton's Monica than George W. Bush's Monica. Bill's Monica nearly ruined his marriage. George's Monica nearly destroyed the Justice Department. Bill's Monica got him impeached. George's Monica gets a free pass.