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It's hard to come across this headline and not be a little taken aback: "Mexico To Legalize Cocaine, Heroin Use."

That's right – according to yesterday's stories, "Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign into law a measure that decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs for personal use." ("Other drugs include LSD and methamphetamines.) The specifics of the measure are complex – this story gets into it pretty well – but considering the peg, it struck me as a pretty huge story. After all, think of the implications: A possible rise in casual drug use in the US and Mexico, not to mention an upswing in Mexican "drug tourism." And let's not even get into what it means for spring break.

I wasn't alone in thinking the story was big: It was the most e-mailed story at the Los Angeles Times Web site. But it did not get a ton of play in general. Sure, those hippies over at the Huffington Post were all over it, but the story was either buried or nowhere to be found on most of the news sites I checked in the early afternoon yesterday. On CBSNews.com, according to Senior Producer Dan Collins, the story was on the home page for most of the morning, and was ranked No. 1 in the "World" section, before eventually being cycled off the home page. That's more play than it seemed to get elsewhere, but it still didn't strike me as a lot.

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Last month, when enrollment began for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, we noticed that much of the coverage on evening newscasts – including the “Evening News” -- seemed to focus on documenting seniors’ frustration with the confusing logistics of the new plan rather than providing information about how best to navigate it. And, since most broadcasts noted that the best outlet for information about the program was online, but nearly 75% of seniors have never used the Internet, it seemed all the more important that the broadcasts provide information that would be useful to those who were enrolling.



CBS “Evening News” anchor Bob Schieffer told viewers then that the broadcast would be revisiting the subject, and last night, correspondent Wyatt Andrews did just that. He began the piece by noting that he couldn’t find a single senior at a Virginia senior center who had signed up for the benefit, mainly because the enrollment process was so confusing. With that, the rest of the piece offered some simple steps to begin enrollment. While a two-minute piece obviously can’t get quite as involved as the benefit program appears to be, it seemed like a useful starting off point for those viewers who had a vested interest in the subject. If I were 65, I would have been paying close attention. (And for that 25% of seniors who do use the Internet, Andrews wrote a more detailed guide to enrollment on the Web.)

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Yesterday was a momentous occasion in the lives of many American seniors – meaning it marked the beginning of a big pain in the keister: the first day they could begin to sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, which is slated to begin in January. As such, the networks have been reporting on how seniors are responding to the enrollment process so far. Each script begins, inevitably, with a disgruntled senior.



On the CBS "Evening News" Tuesday, Sharyn Alfonsi spoke with frustrated senior, Shirley Schooley:

MS. SCHOOLEY: It's terrible. And I think all they’re doing is confusing senior citizens.

On Monday's "World News Tonight," viewers heard from the McCrums:

EDWARD McCRUM: I don't know how much we are going to save on this program. I really don't.


HOPE McCRUM: On a scale of frustration of one to ten, I'd say it's ten.

NBC's Chip Reid found a few others for Monday's "Nightly News":

REID: So what's the biggest problem?



Unidentified Woman: There are so many choices, that's it.



Unidentified Man #1: Yeah, that's what the problem is. There's just so many choices.

Suffice to say that the program is complex, and seniors are confused -- certainly an important part of the story.



But while all the segments focused on the frustration among seniors, only Lisa Stark's piece on Tuesday's "World News Tonight," actually mapped out information for seniors from experts with specific advice about how to navigate the new program, rather than simply delineating their frustration with it.

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