The difference today is that the American public has the attention span of an infant. This is why the U.S. is adamant about turning over control of the country to "the Iraqis" three months from today -- even though we have no idea who the hell these "Iraqis" are.
The difference today is that we have several 24-hour news channels that are in constant need of material to fill the spaces between ads that pay for their broadcast. Add to that mindless idiots like Imus and you end up with (a) the SOS over and over again and (b) blathering handwringing about nothing being done about any of this.