BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

Eleven Secret Service agents and 11 members of the Armed Forces got into deep trouble after allegedly paying for and partying with prostitutes in Cartagena, Columbia, prior to the President’s trip there for a Latin American summit.

The secret service scandal has been on the front pages of newspapers and leading the evening newscasts for days. The outcome of the Latin American summit got a one-day of coverage on Page 11 of the Washington Post and little if any coverage on network television.

Self-promoting political strategist Hillary Rosen made it onto evening news shows and page one of American newspapers for saying Ann Romney hasn’t worked a day in her life. The news outlets made it a point to say that Rosen’s remarks were just a “gaffe” and that she wasn’t speaking for anyone but herself. If that were the case and since few in America know who Hillary Rosen is, why is what she says such big news?

Weeks after Mitt Romney pretty much secured the Republican presidential nomination in March the Washington Post still considered it front-page news that Newt Gingrich insisted he was staying in the race.

Throughout the campaign the big news has been on such trivialities as Romney’s dog and his Mexican ancestors sexual proclivities; the implied prejudice in the Rick Perry rock story; the innuendo and character assassination in stories about Newt Gingrich’s marriages, and the gusher of propaganda from the Obama campaign.

The media, so much of the time, pass up extended and in-depth coverage of substance for coverage of salaciousness, or at best minimize the former and maximize the latter.

There will be no end to stories about General Services Administration officials partying in Las Vegas at taxpayers’ expense.   Name one other thing you know about the GSA?  Can’t, can you?

There has been bloated and exaggerated coverage of the Buffett Rule, an Obama campaign gimmick that has no relevance to the American economy, the national debt, the annual deficit, job creation, or tax reform, yet you would conclude by the coverage it is more important than any of those other subjects.

When the Buffett buffoonery started to run its course—and it has had a great run—the President dusted off the old but ageless gas price-gouging script, and sure enough, it made national headlines and the evening news broadcasts. You just can’t make this stuff up.

No one will argue that those stories don’t deserve coverage. They do, but not at the expense of that which has a real impact on peoples’ lives. Too often the arbiters of news value minimize the relevance of events in daily life and maximize the entertainment value of what they print and put on the air. It’s good entertainment, but it’s not good news. That kind of news misjudgment may hype the ratings and increase Internet hits but it also does a serious disservice to the consumers of the news and ignores the fact that while news media do have a financial obligation to their stockholders, they also have a constitutional responsibility to their public.

First, it denies readers, viewers and listeners the information and knowledge they so desperately need in order to make good decisions at the polls.

Second, the coverage badly distorts the realities of campaigns and elections and the candidates who compete in them. It contributes to the already serious public disillusionment with politics and the governing process, making which in the end just makes governing all that more difficult.

Third, the coverage’s thorough preoccupation with the negative and nasty, discourages good people from participating in the elective process, either as citizens or candidates. That skews the outcomes in favor of those who practice the politics of division and dissent.

Fourth, that kind of coverage greatly inhibits honest, civil and informative discourse, both in governing and politics. As a result, those who engage in political discourse are encouraged to get angry, go on the attack and behave like circus clowns.

If you wonder why we haven’t moved as a nation closer to consensus on such pressing issues as immigration, educational accountability, better financing of health care, retirement security, personal privacy, and tax reform, you can look to the media for part of the answer.

If you wonder why we are facing fiscal crises at the end of the year with the collision of massive national debt and absolute gridlock over how to resolve it, look to the media for part of the answer. If you wonder why our political process turns people off and produces outcomes that don’t produce good governance, look to the media… you get the point. It’s just too bad you don’t get the real news.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.