Eavesdropping on Our Phone Calls is Just One Part of the Problem

The big news today--and yesterday--all over the internet and news programs is that--SURPRISE!--the government is listening in on Americans phone calls.
US Maintains Vast Database of Phone Calls, Lawmakers Say
I mean, come on, who of us is surprised?
But you know what surprises me far more and even disappoints me?
Do you even know how this story broke?
It came from a British newspaper, the Guardian UK:
  NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon ... - The Guardian
A foreign newspaper chain got the scoop on this story.  How insane is that? What about the New York Times or Reuters or the AP or heck, even Fox "News"?  ABC? CBS? NBC? CNN? NPR? PBS? Anyone? Any news agency here in the States?
No one in the reporting industry in America was on this story but a British, English newspaper was?
Is this what we are to expect of American media in the future? We're to get our news from England or Al Jazeera or some other international media source?
If this is what we are to expect, and I fear it is, it doesn't seem as though the media can be counted on to be the "fourth estate" and help keep the government and/or wealthy and/or corporations in check.
In the meantime, this morning, we got this from the President:
'Nobody is listening to your telephone calls'
President Obama staunchly defended domestic surveillance programs.   That is very little comfort, I have to say. First drones, then drones killing 4 Americans, then defending all that, now this.   I'm not panicking but I don't think it's good, either, not for using less or no drones, not for privacy and not for reporting in America and the world.