In the midst of getting up one morning, the radio was airing a story about a mouse biting a snake. Even worse, this all occurred 31 years ago. Is a mouse biting a snake what James Madison had in mind when writing the First Amendment? I don’t think so.

KYW is Philadelphia’s all-news radio station. In fact, it is the nation’s second oldest such station, starting soon after its sister station, 1010 WINS went "all news" in New York City. Those who regard themselves as intelligent adults wake up to KYW, listen to KYW while driving to and from work, and more times than not, end the night with KYW. There’s traffic on the twos, sports at 15 and 45 minutes, business news at 25 and 55, and so on.

Russ Limbaugh, which has a major influence in almost every major media market, is hardly a blimp in Philly, because KYW so dominates the AM airwaves. Just as KYW is the leading radio station, so is the WPVI’s Action News the leading local TV news program in the Philadelphia market. The ABC affiliate has so dominated local TV news that no one can recall the last time the CBS and NBC stations made money on their local TV news.

The problem with Action News, according to the late Pat Pollilo, the executive producer who created the concept now the universal model for all local TV news programs is that the rapid-fire, "blood ‘n guts" followed by "fluff ‘n puff" doesn’t actually provide viewers the news they need to know.

And that’s the problem with the media today, from USA Today to the CBS Evening News to half of your cable news programming. There’s plenty of punditry, feature pieces, and catch-a-sex-predator shows. But is it news — which when I started at the Doylestown Intelligencer — was something people needed to know, not what they wanted to know.

Even email news bulletins are now infected with this garbage. I recall urgent email alerts on February 8 last year from CNN, CBS, ABC and even the New York Times that Anna Nicole Smith has just died. Who in the world is Anna Nicole Smith? A congresswoman? A state Attorney General? No, this Anna Nicole Smith was a former Playboy bunny! People know (other than me) who is Paris Hilton. People don’t know who is Charlie Rangel or Jim McCrery, despite the fact that these two men decide how much taxes you pay each year.

In Virginia Pharmacy (1976), the Supreme Court opined that the First Amendment protects not only the speaker, but also the recipient, that there is a First Amendment right to "receive information and ideas," and that freedom of speech "necessarily protects the right to receive." While specifically referring to the free exchange of commercial information via advertising, Justice Blackmun, speaking for the High Court, pointedly noted that it "is a matter of public interest" that the public’s decisions, ranging from whom should be elected to office, to what drugs to buy at the pharmacy, "in the aggregate, be intelligent and well informed." The First Amendment is, or least was "thought to be primarily an instrument to enlighten public decision-making in a democracy."

Today, KYW has only 22 minutes to provide news, weather, information, sports and traffic. The other eight minutes are devoted to advertising. I understand I have to put up with eight minutes of advertising. Sometimes I might even gain some important consumer information from these ads. But I don’t need the anchors debasing themselves by voicing ads in the midst of their reporting, such as "KYW News time is now 6:30, time to go to Dunkin Donuts." If Dunkin Donuts wants me to go to their store, let their announcer pitch it, not the news anchor.

Which brings us back to the story about a mouse biting a snake. KYW runs what in the newsroom is commonly called a "filler." The filler is called "Re-Wind," pitched as "A Look Back at This Date in Entertainment History." I am told that it is syndicated nationwide. I am told it is extremely popular. So what!

It still takes away from my First Amendment right to get news, even if it is one minute. In the world of $4.00 a gallon gas, Osama bin Laden still on the loose, and Barak Obama getting a free pass from media scrutiny, the last thing I need to know is that a mouse bit a snake. Even if the snake belongs to Alice Cooper. It adds nothing to my ability to decide whom I should vote for, what issues the Congress, State Legislature or City Council ought to be addressing, or even if the product I want to purchase is worth the asking price. Is that James Madison I hear rolling in his grave?