Al Gore seems to think so. Earlier this week, the former vice president told Diane Sawyer that while the media's been focused on Britney, Anna Nicole Smith, and K-Fed (yes, he actually said "K-Fed") "very quietly, our country has been making some very serious mistakes that could be avoided if we the people, including the news media, are involved in a full and vigorous discussion of what our choices are."

But our boy Jack Shafer respectfully disagrees with Mr. Gore:

In condemning Britney-obsessed reporters and readers, Gore takes the easy route. If he possessed any real courage in his conviction that news coverage of the frivolous blocks the discussion of serious "issues," he'd attack sports coverage. Sports capture a billion times the attention that celebrities do and probably swallow 20 percent of the news budget of dailies. The reason Gore gives sports coverage a bye while castigating Britney coverage is simple: Sports fans talk back — loudly — and folks who crave entertainment-news coverage are too embarrassed to defend their innocent diversion.

We'd have more of an opinion, but we're too busy painting our chests for tonight's Mets game.