In the nature of determining what is news and what’s really not worthy of coverage, there appears to be an additional criteria for media; that being the category of “we know it’s not really news, but because everyone else is covering it we should as well and what the hey – let’s send some reporters and a satellite truck to go live.”

Case in point – the Republication Iowa Straw Poll. Policy aside for a moment (if that’s at all possible given the current caustic environment), this event has been a non story for some time. What started as a late 1970s fundraiser has turned into a litmus test – if not a full referendum – on the field of candidates even before the real campaigning gets going. This most recent one already claimed one casualty – former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty who stepped down after placing third, two paces behind fellow Viking Michelle Bachmann. The entire side show was covered in all the papers and national news organizations for days; with even the historically above board PBS’s Gwen Ifill reporting live from the state fair for her Washington Week program.

But here’s the deal – since its inception, the Straw Poll has only gotten it right once when it named George W. Bush the winner (and some would argue that he wasn’t truly elected by the American public since he failed to gain the popular vote and only took office after the Supreme Court intervened). The reality is the Iowa event garners interest and attendees from a small segment of the state’s Republican field, not to mention that the sample of voters doesn’t at all reflect the broader Midwestern (let alone the entire U.S.) electorate. And yet, we as news watchers are afforded around the clock coverage of the spectacle, even more so now as the blogosphere and social media machines fuel the 24/7 news cycle even further.

So when we truly look at the value of this coverage, the reality is there’s little there, other than providing a large swath of the American people what they want; politicos fighting with one another like they’re in a cage match and less like public servants. So let’s just call the mainstream news reports on the Iowa Straw Poll what they are – entertainment. My advice to the cable news outfits is to place the coverage alongside its equals – like MSNBC’s “Lock Up” and CNN’s “Nancy Grace,” and hope to the ratings gods that you follow an Ultimate Fighter match on SpikeTV.