Election Fluff

So, election time. It's coming up at quick, swinging at us all with full force. The tension has been building for over a year, and now we are finally down to two candidates holding the Democratic and Republican nominations. Obama and McCain.
Despite all the campaigning that has been ongoing for the past year, it seems as though the real campaigning begins now. Now would be the time to really listen. Unfortunately, many have begun to feel burnt out on the whole event. Terrible as it might seem, many of us have gotten to know the candidates so well at this point that everything they say now seems borderline redundant to previous promises and vows.
And now, all we seem to focus on instead of what actually matters in a leader is what the media and news crews are broadcasting into our eager minds. So, plane crashes that did not actually happen, war stories and footage, caricatures on the cover of magazines-- this is what we learn, hear and read about.
How is that relevant?
Does it matter that Obama's plane might have obtained minor damage? Do we have to continually see the same clip of McCain as a POW? It seems as though news conglomorates are so desperate to report something, anything, on this issue that scraping the bottom of the election barrel does not seem beneath most journalists.
I find this a little troubling. The news is supposed to inform the public on relevant facts on the current election, not turn it into this years hottest reality show-- everyone's guilty pleasure.
Furthermore, we are in an era where the majority of the American Public is capable of obtaining factual information on current candidates as a means to make an intelligent decision on who should become the next leader of this nation. We could be well on our way to eliminating the Electoral College and making this nation a true democracy.
But with news sites and stations updating us 24/7 on facts that make no difference to the campaigns or to people's decisions on how they will vote, I feel as though we are somehow being set back. A sensationalize election will not help us to break law makers idea that the general public is not capable of making a rational decision on who can be the President of the United States.
If only news stations cared less about ratings and more about informing people on current events, we could all worry less about what our candidates are wearing and more about what they can do for us in the long run.