Due to blog troubleshooting I’ve encountered with the following post, it may be slightly outdated:

Recent Headlines: Evidence of more Tabloid Journalism or of US Congress Getting Sleazier?

Leighly notes in Mass Media and Politics that while coverage of Congress has decreased over the past decade, the news that is mentioned has become increasingly more negative. She presents a study, published by S. Robert Lichter and Daniel R Amundson that indicated a 12% increase in negative coverage of both parties in Congress between the years 1972 and 1994.
Leighly speculates that the negative shift of congressional news coverage either reflects substantial changes of behavior within members of Congress, or is due to a shift in the way “newsworthiness” is being determined by media industries. Originally, upon contemplating this issue, I favored the former explanation, as it that seemed more in line with the profit seeking model, and the latter explanation I saw as weak since corruption has plagued Congress since the dawn of its existence.
Unfortunately, there is an undeniable pervasive effect of tabloid journalism. The general focus of the media on sex, scandal and corruption, translates into extensive coverage of the corruption and scandals that occur in Congress, and a lack of sufficient coverage over significant developments in legislation or of important issues that are being deliberated. Thus, by presenting only the headlines that would receive the most attention, comes the consequence of widespread ignorance of politics among citizens, typically more familiar with the names of the animated Simpson family than the names of the Supreme Court Justices.
During elections when educating the public is especially pertinent, as I mentioned in my previous blog, the media’s focus is on the “game” or “horserace”, who is ahead or behind in the logistics and strategy, up or down in the polls and providing completely unsubstantial and useless information that not only fails to aid voters in their choosing a candidate, but results in greater voter cynicism and less turnout on election day. (See how the coverage of the congressional race has shifted even more towards the “game” and “horserace” after the Foley sex scandal: at USATODAY.com - Race for Senate control tightens, and in The NY Times In House Races, More G.O.P. Seats Seen at Risk as well as The Fix -- Washington post,)

At the same time as the media seems to fail in educating citizens of essential political fact, its recent focus on the scandals and allegation against congressmen have brought to light the sordid state our government it is in. Overall, rather than congress being portrayed as the main deliberation policymaking body of the federal government that it has been conveyed as a swamp that houses sleazy corrupt individuals, power and money hungry, constantly engaged in bolstering their popularity, using whatever means necessary to achieve their political goals. Sadly, this portrayal reflects reality; pedophiles, hypocrites, liars, acrimonious racists, swindlers, and embezzlers just name a few. Therefore, we cannot only cite journalistic tendencies to account for the increasingly negative coverage of Congress.
The Mark Foley incident has been especially grotesque, and the availability of web technology has made the story especially powerful with Bryan Ross’s broadcasting (see ABC News clip) actual conversations that took place between the Senator and a male page, via instant message and as Newsweek puts it, “while congressmen caught in sex scandal is nothing new, the way the story broke shows the power of web technology to influence politics”
However, the amount of corruption that is plaguing our Senate and House lately seems a bit over the top and even unprecedented. The Mark Foley scandal has left many more cynical of our legislative body than ever. The people running our country, our Federal government lack basic morals and ethics.