Media a watchdog in any true sense?

Mass media holds power. Issues that fall in the medias limelight have a way of getting resolved quickly. Knowing that the media holds such sway, it is infuriating to realise that the media rarely exhibits enough foresight to protect the masses from peril, time and time again.
Take for example, the credit crunch and the financial crisis. The crisis began far before the media picked it up in mid-2007; it was back in early 2006 when the sub-prime mortgage losses began building up, with no measures taken to protect equity based on these mortgages.
The media noticed the issue more than a year later when the crisis was well underway, with no method of stopping it. If the issue had been taken up much earlier, disaster of global-proportions could have been at least partially checked. Needless to say, the media came under severe fire for their lack of foresight and many called it a gross shirking of responsibility. But did it learn a lesson?
Now lets take an example from the local scenario; our sugar crisis did not begin, as we might be led to believe, a month ago, rather, it began way back in February. Sticking to the point and leaving the facts for a later discussion; it took our media nearly five months to raise the issue. No sooner was this issue tossed around in the public eye, were quick, albeit late, steps taken by government agencies to curb the problem. The steps were taken too late to truly protect the public and we will, unfortunately, have sugar troubles to deal with.
What are the synonyms for "media"? Vehicle, channel, way - each a word indicating a portal through which the public is connected to the concerns that affect them. What issues are we overlooking right now? Zealous over IMFs grant, we fail to predict what it will do to our debt in the future; happy with short term energy fixes, we dont scrutinise what will happen down the line; extremely, extremely happy over Moodys upgrade of our bonds right now, we forget to think how they will rate us in a years time.
While media involvement will not cause all problems to dissipate before they arise, it would provide the public a much needed "heads up" and perhaps reduce the intensity of the problem. If the media, the watch dog, the foreseer, is not aware of trouble brewing, how will the masses come to know before it is too late?