This sad episode is quietly shaping up to be one of the monumental news media embarrassments of 2010. It's the fact that a bipartisan bill designed to aid and compensate first responders from the 9/11 terror attack was defeated in the Senate by filibustering Republicans and the fact that, to this day, the mainstream media have worked on a heroic scale to ignore the story, as well as the rampant GOP obstructionism in play.

As I first pointed out, on the night the 9/11 bill was defeated in the Senate, none of the network news shows that evening mentioned the story. And the rest of the cable news universe wasn't much better: In the 48 hours following the vote, according to TVeyes.com, the phrase “first responder” was mentioned just 10 times on CNN, nine on MSNBC, and one time on Fox News. (Once.)

Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart though, continues to cover a story the rest of the press has passed on. Last night, Stewart conducted interviews with some Sept. 11 first responders. And here, he derides the media for its lack of interest in the important story: