The difference between journalism that makes an investment in the lives of ordinary people and journalism that doesn't is staggering. Erin Burnett's myopic coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests epitomized something I've banged on about before: the signature failing of the media, in the way they've deigned to cover the massive unemployment crisis in America, is that they treat the people who are actually unemployed as abstract concepts. The norm that the media constantly, redundantly enforces is that the unemployment crisis is an event that solely threatens the re-election hopes of politicians, to whom they crave access. But no one craves access to poor people! So they remain in the background, where they can be easily abused.