The press is broken

Journalism in the UK (and the way politicians are allowed to play it) is in a shocking state. I'm bored of looking at the newspaper stand and thinking "yuck". In just the last few days we've had:

• Ed Milliband's face-drawn-on-a-balloon looping the same soundbite over and over
• Johann Hari testing the limits of acceptable plagiarism
• pictures of Diana at 50
• striking teachers spuriously blamed for a girl's death
• revelations about News of the World's astonishingly amoral behaviour (seriously, how much criminal activity can an organisation organise before it's condemned as a criminal organisation?)
• The Sun and Daily Mirror facing contempt of court charges over their mud-slingy coverage of the Joanna Yeates case
• BBC Breakfast's Bill Turnbull taking the art of patronisation to new heights by telling the space shuttle crew that the US no longer has a space exploration programme, shortly before getting excited about the fact their mission badges had velcro on them.
• the continued existence of Jan Moir

So, The Media, could we try a little harder please? Thanks.