The money *is* the story.

Now, I think any sensible reading of any poll or any financial report in the MA-05 race would say that Tsongas will be very tough to beat. That being said, what was up with ‘BUR’s Fred Thys’ report for All Things Considered on the race? It portrayed the race as Widow-Tsongas vs. the-other-lady-candidate vs. 9/11 guy. Seriously, not one mention of Finegold, Eldridge, Miceli, Murphy … As for discussion of issues, Thys mentions Tsongas’ call for an Iraq withdrawal — hardly a dividing line among the Dem candidates. In other words, Thys essentially already declares a Tsongas vs. Ogonowski general election. I know, it’s a 3 1/2 minute piece, but still — the emphasis is all wrong, and it doesn’t especially help people make a decision.

That’s a shame, but unfortunately not uncommon these days, even from the most “in-depth” news outlets. The New York Times seems to run candidate pieces with little to no mention of the substantive issues at play. For instance, here’s a piece on Silicon Valley fundraising for the various candidates, and this is the kind of thing you get:

Part of Mr. Obama?s appeal, it seems, is that he is considered something of a start-up, reminding many of the technorati of themselves. ?The Valley is used to taking start-ups and making huge success stories out of them,? said John Roos, an Obama fund-raiser who is chief executive of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the Silicon Valley law firm. ?Obama has that aura.?

Ah, aura. Very enlightening and informative, NYT. How about intellectual property, or science education, or anything that politicians do that affects them, or the world at large? (I should be fair and say that Al Gore’s support of alternative energies and stem cell research gets mentioned — I mean mentioned — in passing.)

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