The average citizen has a life to lead, children to raise, a job to go to. These ( and other things) fill most of his time. He lacks the time and the skills to dig down and find out what is really happening. Most of us average citizens get our news from NPR (NHPR) while driving to work, and off the TV in the evening. For a democracy to work, the voters need to know what is going on. And American news media have little to nothing about what is really happening. They have a lot of commentary, and what little news we get is heavily slanted. Stories that support "the narrative" get lots of coverage. Stories that contradict the narrative get buried. And the citizens know this, and hence don't know what's going on, and so vote their built in prejudices, which ain't always good for the country.
We really need a trustworthy press, and we don't have it. And we know that. Fox News and the Wall St Journal are perhaps the best of 'em. PBS ain't what it used to be back when it was the Mac Neill-Lehrer news hour. But we need more reliable news sources. And we don't have them.
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