Generally speaking, the public are uninformed or misinformed. Rarely does the average person bother to fact-check, investigate sources, or otherwise test and va

Generally speaking, the public are uninformed or misinformed. Rarely does the average person bother to fact-check, investigate sources, or otherwise test and validate information. Even rarer still does someone actually offer up proof that they did in fact do their due diligence. Ergo, the public (vis a vis social media) cannot be trusted. Professional media, on the other hand, is crucified whenever it fails to fact-check, investigate sources, or otherwise test and validate information. This is because their entire reason for existing is to provide those services. Just because sometimes professional media sources fail in their mission doesn't mean that their mission is flawed, or that they should give up and let the public handle dissemination of information.