In the 18 days since the RCMP raid on the offices of the Minister of Finance and Minister of Transportation, the news media have provided a daily barrage of minute details. They may have missed reporting on the name and breed of David Basi's dog, but that is probably nothing but a temporary oversight. The use of search warrants to remove documents from offices in the legislature is dramatic, and it is made more so by the inappropriate presence of cameras to record the event. Extensive coverage of the raid and investigation is in the public interest, particularly when the RCMP added to the drama by making sweeping claims about organized crime being virtually omnipresent. What has occurred, however, goes beyond thorough coverage.

The Campbell government has brought some of the feeding frenzy on itself in the way it has handled questions. The Premier's leisurely stay in Maui infuriated many observers. Gary Collins tried to pick nits by denying that David Basi's office was part of the office of the Minister of Finance. Worst of all, no one offered a satisfactory answer to why Basi and Virk were treated differently. The lame excuse that Basi's job was different has not stopped the question from being repeated at every opportunity, nor should it since it challenges credibility.

It is hard to maintain a media feeding frenzy without regular scraps of new information. In recent days, the frenzy has been fed fairly thin gruel. One way those who have deadlines to meet can react to the shortage of feed is to comment on how the story is being covered, or on how the story has been one sided. Watch for sympathetic pieces that attempt to provide "balance". On January 13, for example, the Vancouver Sun's Vaughn Palmer wrote about the police visit to Education Minister Christy Clark's home under a headline that read "Clark's equanimity suggests Liberals not all that worried". "Equanimity" or "evenness of temper even under stress" could also be characteristic of someone who displays antisocial or psychopathic behaviour, but when one is served thin gruel, minor lumps can be made to look like nuggets.

As the investigation drags out through the spring and summer and into the fall, coverage will eventually occur less frequently and then only when some hard information emerges. The importance of the issue will not wane because it is not everyday that search warrants are served at the legislature in conjunction with RCMP statements about drugs, money laundering and organized crime. While we wait for substantive information it would be nice to see coverage on other areas of provincial politics and policy that is as exhaustive as the media reports of the past two weeks on the investigation into whatever it is.