Scooped! traces the impact of the tabloid contagion that began to spread with the appearance in 1986 of "A Current Affair", Rupert Murdoch's trend-setting television program that trafficked "in stories about love triangles, sex fiends, and naughty girls, the bacon and eggs of the British tabloid breakfast".

David Krajicek, a former crime reporter, concludes that while the media increasingly focused on trivial sleaze, celebrity scandals, and gruesome but unrepresentative crimes, it neglected a far more important crime story: the collapse of the American criminal justice system as a cost-efficient, equitable deterrent. He argues that crime trends and crime policy have little to do with one another; it is no wonder, Krajicek writes, that Americans are confused and frightened about what to do about real threats to law and order.

Krajicek shows that tabloid distractions drew journalists away from the substantive reporting that could have given a more accurate image of crime during the past decade. Instead, stories about a "society under siege" led to panic about lawlessness, and politicians -- playing their customary role -- stepped in with the usual "solutions": morearrests, more prisons, longer sentences.

Krajicek challenges each journalist -- from publisher to reporter -- to take responsibility for his or her work, and calls on the media to more closely examine crime policy and hold politicians responsible for legislation that doesn't work.