Why the electorate is ignorant

In looking at the news Sunday morning, as I usually do with my vente bold, I came across this story in the Washington Post by Jobi Warrick. The headline and first two paragraphs are copied here along with a link to entire story.

Smugglers had design for advanced warhead
Draft report says ring acquired blueprints for nuclear weapon

An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.

The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25169704/

It is quit comprehensive and in-depth, so why am I pointing this out? Well first of all this is buried deep in the website I use to get my primary news and information. It is listed as one of the top home pages in the world. The top stories today are Tiger Woods, The Making of the Housing Bubble with a big red foreclosure sign, and the continuation of the un-timely death of Tim Russert. Now I can tell that I think it is very appropriate on Father’s Day to continue the life story of who I regard as a great American in Tim Russert. I think that a report on the housing bubble might be an interesting read. I think Tiger’s come back yesterday was remarkable. But a story of a “compact nuclear devise” possibly being in the hands of just about everyone who hates us is almost not noticeable?

We are ignorant and it is in part due to the fact that the media in general gives us the news they think will get more readership, plain and simple. And even more so today when instantaneously web statistics are available to the media outlet that is so detailed they can tailor the information exactly to the demographic that the statistics bear out.

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but all we do is read the cover.

Update! About one minute after I posted this I had gone back to my home page and now this story is "above the fold" so to speak. Maybe there is hope after all.

Update #2. I have not seen or heard of this since Sunday.

Greg