ABSTRACT
The process by which public policy is made in the United States is now largely incomprehensible to its citizens. At the heart of public policy-making is Congress, whose members pour forth millions of reams of paper and billions of decibels of sound bites to communicate with bewildered citizens without really improving their understanding of legislative processes. The acoustical boost for the politicians' message is provided mostly by journalists. What is less clear is how good a job journalists are doing helping citizens understand the inner workings of Congress. Journalists may be better as amplifiers than as clarifiers. The coverage of legislative hearings by journalists, however, varies in thoroughness not according to the importance of the legislation under examination, but rather to the celebrity value of the witnesses or their capacity to evoke anger or pathos.
