FDA, HUD, EPA, et al

There was a time, not all that long ago, when general print newspapers and TV news actually reported on the doings of various U.S. government agencies and departments like the Food and Drug Administration, Housing and Urban Development (and its predecessor HEW, or Health, Education and Welfare), the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. All, which seemingly on the outside, may appear boring to some, but do have billions of our tax dollars tied up in projects good, bad and ugly.
Reported on no longer these days.
To be fair, readership and viewing numbers have shrunk in the last 15 or so years, but what came first the chicken or the egg with this one. Did the news business bore people to death with dry stories on federal housing scandals or did it run readers and viewers to death with the legal machinations of celebrities? Or maybe we are a "Prozac Nation" with a society of ill-educated dolts who can't wait to pop the next pill and numb themselves from reality.
Either way, people ought to consider that if there is a housing shortage for people who live below the poverty income line, then where is the $35 billion in federal money for HUD going in 2007? That's its budget.
Take into consideration the Food and Drug Administration, which in theory protects us from bad food and bad doctors will get about $1.3 billion in 2007 (when Congress manages to pass a federal budget they are about four months late now) . That money has to protect us from things like the next e-coli scare or the next super drug that actually hurts people instead of heal them.
EPA has more than 17,000 people who work for it, and a budget of more than $7 billion. Seems like a big slice of the almost $3 trillion the USG's planning to spend this year. Then why is pollution on the rise?
The irony of this is, that these were facts reporters once had to "dig" for, or at least go down to the public library. Today, it took me five minutes on my laptop computer. If I wanted to "dig" deeper, then I would just dial up the public information office from these various agencies, spend a few minutes navigating the voice mail options and maybe get a person to tell me some more things or line up an interview. Who knows what dark parking garages a face-to-face interview with a government employee might lead?
Clearly the poor will always be with us. People will continue to lie, cheat and steal and we will have dirty water. But at least there was a time when people were informed about it and could try and DO something to stop it.
Today, there's a clamor for more news on Britney Spears' underwear, Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell's clap trap of mouth and car chases through Houston (which I reckon people in Houston probably don't care that much about).
Me, I'm holding out for that big rocket to be built and whisk me off to another planet just before the asteroid nobody believes in strikes this one.