Simon - Media need substance, not sensation

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Newspaper and broadcast editors need to put substance over sensationalism when covering events, former Illinois Sen. Paul Simon said during a lecture at Kansas State University.

Simon, speaking Wednesday, said the media must be focused on the bottom line, but he admonished networks and editors for reducing coverage of international events to focus on trivial domestic events.

"Network television coverage of the (O.J.) Simpson trial was 3.5 times as much as the fall of the Berlin Wall," he said. "Which is more important in our lives? The answer is fairly obvious. And if you included cable, it goes up to about 13 times as much coverage."

Simon, 72 and a Democrat, served 10 years in the U.S. House and two terms in the Senate. He operated a chain of 13 newspapers in southern and central Illinois before entering politics in the 1960s. He is now director of the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

The one-time presidential candidate also said the media are ignoring key domestic issues, such as the lack of health care for 43 million Americans.

"I'm not suggesting there shouldn't have been one story, one day, and maybe another story on page 26, but that should have been about it," Simon said.