Controlling the Story

The Republicans do an amazing job of controlling the stories that show up in our media. They pounce on some little something that they can distort and exaggerate and turn into a pseudo-scandal, and shout about it until the media pay attention and ignore bigger stories. Which do you think is a bigger, more important story - Nancy Pelosi needing a bigger military aircraft than Dennis Hastert, or that $4.3 billion of cash was shipped off to Iraq on pallets, and nobody seems to have any idea where it went? Which one is getting more coverage?

Searching "Pelosi plane" on Google News results in over 900 hits; "cash pallets" under 300. Why do reporters let themselves get manipulated like this?