I think Edward R Murrow is rolling over in his grave. One could quite easily and handily argue that the state of journalism today is in decline, to put it politely.
The fact that people's attention spans have been reduced to soundbites makes everything presented become a recipe for a bi-polar, zero sum "he said she said" "you're with me or against me" "right or wrong" "black or white" atmosphere. Why? What ever happened to shades of gray? Context? Backstory? Three sides to every argument? Opinion vs fact? When did feelings supercede facts and statistics?
Not only that, but the disagreements become extreme ends of the spectrum i.e. if you are of one political persuasion the other "side" is now evil. Not wrong. Not ill-informed. Not a legitimate viewpoint based on their personal perspective. Just evil. How fast do online "debates" (haha, right) devolve into "you're a Nazi" vs "you're a socialist scumbag"... seconds? Minutes? And these internet keyboard warriors are so brave when they're anonymous, but I think we all know what they'd be like if they were in the same room as the people they spew their hate towards.
Far too many "news" shows have talking head opinion panels which are nothing more than echo chambers and make the population stupider. Gone are the gritty, dedicated panel shows that had aggressive 'debate team' style setups (Crossfire, Hannity and Colmes) where you got immediate rebuttals. Now, completely unhinged things are said regularly by these vapid idiots and they remain totally unchallenged. It's shameful. Don't get me started on the hypocrisy.... example: what was yelled from the mountaintops about "stay at home" last week is a completely different song this week.
Too many people get outraged over nothing and feel like it's their job to crush and vilify whatever/whoever offended them. The slightest perceived offence is grounds for execution now, especially online. This cancel culture crap is childish. No one has the right to not be offended. These kid-dults need to grow up.
Sorry for the vent. A republic doesn't fall due to external events, it rots from within. People can only make choices if they have access to accurate information concerning society, both the govt and the press have a special duty to collect and disseminate this information. Thomas Jefferson wrote that a well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy.
Whoa, why am I still typing? I am preaching to the choir, anyway. I'm going to go smoke a pipe and relax. Who cares what a dipstick like me on an internet forum thinks anyway, right? Besides, in a couple billion years our Sun will burn out and it'll all be moot.
or the other. Take both sides put them in a bag, shake them and dump them out and BINGO! The same piece of 
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