>Thinkpieces lately have had a trend of reaching harder and harder to link the news de jour to a higher, abstract concepts Is that not what a 'think piece' is?

>Thinkpieces lately have had a trend of reaching harder and harder to link the news de jour to a higher, abstract concepts Is that not what a 'think piece' is? However I agree with your observation of the general trend, with news in general, and would attribute it to the commodification of raw, unfiltered info. For many types of news, we don't have to watch the news at 10 anymore - the primary sources are available to everyone. Every political speech, every citizen recording of police brutality, every draft legislation - it's all on the internet. Intelligent analysis is the scarce resource that's in demand.