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The shortcomings of the so-called mainstream media have become something of a stale trope. Traditional media does some things well, other things poorly, vice-versa for blogging and other social media. But the neglect of the situation in Tunisia by the media in general, and American media in particular, is beyond the pale.

Since a young Tunisian, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire on December 17 to protest conditions in his North African country, and the country went up in flames, most Western, and all American media, has been unearthly silent.

Take a look this morning at Reuters, the BBC, CNN or any number of other media sources and you'll read that WikiLeaks, the controversial wiki-based site for whistle-blowers, is about to release nearly half a million records pertaining to the Iraq War.

Wikileaks says that this news has been reported in more than 700 articles across the Web and that it's all based on "a single tabloid blog at Wired Magazine".

See below for response from Tom Rosenstiel, Director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism

"More than 99% of the stories linked to in blogs came from legacy outlets such as newspapers and broadcast networks. And just four - the BBC, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post accounted for fully 80% of all links."

This is one of the assertions in the latest report from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, "New Media, Old Media."

The online world is an imperfect place. Gmail goes down, chunks of blog posts disappear, and users are deceived on a regular basis. Most of us who spend time online are aware of - and have come to expect - these foibles and hiccups. But now, throngs of mainstream media outlets are entering the fray with a bit of naivete, rushing to use online services that may not yet be ready for prime time - literally. ABC News learned their lesson the hard way during US President Obama's address to Congress.