The Nation Magazine has an important article that connects the rise of massive front-group spending in elections with the decline of the media’s coverage of political campaigns and policy issues. A front group’s distorting message becomes so much more effective when repeated frequently and when the media abandons its job, which is not gotcha journalism but solid political reporting. A responsible media would not just cover the latest polling and financing data, but the substance of what difference it makes whether Candidate A or Candidate B wins. The article is loaded with information about the 2010 election cycle, and exclaims: “The changes taking place in how campaigns are paid for and covered provides the most meaningful explanation for otherwise incomprehensible shifts in our politics.”