This news business ...

For fans of tabloid journalism, this has been a trifecta week:

• After breathless waiting for the DNA test results, we learn that Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby.
• Don Imus goes brain dead while his vocal cords are on autopilot. Don't you just hate when that happens?
• All charges are dropped against three Duke University lacrosse team members whose lives have been forever turned upside-down by a prosecutor who faces professional sanctions.

What would the consumers of such news have done if:

O.J. had chosen this week to announce another book deal in which he confesses outright -- no ifs, ands or buts?

Or some former White House intern had picked this very week to blurt out her tell-all story?

Oops. She already did that.

After four decades of making daily choices about the news that's delivered to newspaper readers, I should easily accept that gossip and innuendo trump facts every day of the week. But that doesn't make it any easier for me to accept.

When I see news organizations catering to the consumer appetite for junk news, it makes me shudder.

More people in this country can name all the potential fathers -- how many were there? -- of Anna Nicole's baby that can name the vice president of the United States.

Does that frighten anyone besides me?

Once upon a time, there was a direct connection between the taxes an American paid and his or her interest in news about how those taxes were being spent. As a result, newspapers and other news organizations devoted considerable time and space to news about government and its spending habits.

So why aren't Americans all that interested in what we call "hard" news anymore?

I can't give you a definitive answer, but I think it has something to do with the tidal wave of easy credit that is flooding the nation.

Bear with me.

In the good old days, the American dream of homeownership meant building a credit record sufficient to obtain a mortgage. In addition to making monthly payments, homeowners would write checks once a year to pay taxes on their homes and to insure them. Nowadays, just about anyone can get a home loan. Too many borrowers don't care about the interest rate as long as the monthly payments are no more than the car payments. And the taxes and insurance are rolled into the payment, so those bills don't even get noticed.

Result: Who really cares about what government is doing to your real-estate taxes or what insurance companies are doing to your premiums?

In the good old days, there were a few deductions from your paycheck, but nothing like the long list of minus items on today's stubs. Nowadays workers only look at the take-home figure with little regard for where the rest is going.

Result: Who cares about the burden of Social Security or Medicare or state and federal tax rates?

In the good old days, you saved up money until you could afford to pay for a new appliance or at least make a decent down payment on a car. Nowadays, a small piece of plastic pays for everything, and the minimum payment on the credit-card bill is all you have to worry about.

Result: Who really cares about the impact of mounting debt and the fact that most Americans have little or nothing saved for retirement -- and do they really care?

Thanks to easy credit, our consumer society is interested in buying stuff, not what government is doing. And Americans are clamoring for more details about Anna Nicole Smith. They won't have to wait long. The movie of her life is in the works.

In other news, a woman kills a bunch of kids and stuffs them in a washer and dryer ... .

Want more details? For just $29.95 a month you can have them beamed straight to your cell phone.

Ain't life grand?

R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.