Today I just read the article saying that the CIA has been paying Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in Afghanistan's illegal opium trade for the past 8 years. I know, I know, my first reaction was "wait whaaat?" too. I would have had no idea, thank God I read my daily paper. The political blogs I usually read mentioned nothing about it. (Although to be fair, neither has the Washington Post)
In fact, according to my research using google news there are a little over 200 sources covering this news. Today there have been over 500 sources covering Michael Jackson's death. Still. Of course this is including sources such as ABC Online and political blogs, but still the difference in numbers is very impressive. I think most of this difference is a result of the newspapers being required to be entertainers in order to make a profit. Hearst showed us the importance of what story you choose to write about in selling the paper. Still, you would think that the CIA paying an Afghanistani drug lord would be the classic Hearstian "Gee Whiz" story.
I'm going to conclude that because this story is still breaking that is why there are so few sources covering it. Hopefully by the end of the week both the Washington Post and the 24 hour news channels will cover this story as well.
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