In this paper I will take up the question of how to think about the importance of the circulation of news under current conditions. I will examine the ways in which news stories come to prominence and will contrast current news culture with the culture of information and debate that Habermas describes as having developed in the eighteenth century in western Europe. My suggestion is that situations involving disasters (the hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast of the US, the earthquake that struck Pakistan)--as well as wars themselves--raise questions about the legitimacy of the news media that extend past the question of the integrity of particular journalists and even past the question of whether the Pentagon embeds journalists with military troops. My overall question is one about legitimation: if Habermas identified open discussion and debate as important for democratic societies, how do we think now about questions of knowledge and choice in the present moment? Do the news media continue (if they ever did) to function as tools for choice?