Contemporary journalism indeed doesn't have a monopoly on terribleness, as you've mentioned. But this is actually the point. Because if I'm really going after t

Contemporary journalism indeed doesn't have a monopoly on terribleness, as you've mentioned. But this is actually the point. Because if I'm really going after the heart of this criticism, it really doesn't matter if I understand the selection function over all stories in the newsroom as an actual algorithm meant to maximize clicks or as some hazy set or rules of thumb and prejudices meant to maximize advertisement revenue. The point is that neither maximizes either the informativeness of a story nor the likelihood of it being true. Also, I don't actually "remember" the Spanish-American war. I understand what you mean, but this is an awkward way to put it.