When you try to educate an otherwise ignorant audience — an audience with deeply-seated biases — you really can’t win either way. Liberals shout “Negligence!” and conservatives yell “Bias!” (while deeply ignoring the irony).
The problem with the media is not too difficult to ascertain; leaving any biases they have out of the equation (difficult, yes…but bear with me). The problem with the media is that the truth is not the desired result; clicks and eyeballs are. It’s a money game — Edward R. Murrow and, later, Walter Cronkite famously bemoaned the state of news gathering and news reporting affairs as early as the end of WWII, first in radio then TV.
News gathering and reporting has to be the means to the end…truth. Nothing else matters. Tell the truth often enough, and the people will follow. Sadly, that’s not happening — and it hasn’t for a long, long time.
