I don't think it's only just an age thing, although that probably is a large part of it. I also think media outlets have gotten to what seems like a more partis

I don't think it's only just an age thing, although that probably is a large part of it. I also think media outlets have gotten to what seems like a more partisan stance as a reaction to the other networks pulling farther and farther away from truth and hard science. And I'm not saying they haven't changed, that it's only the far right fringes pulling farther away, but that the changes are reactionary and pull left-ward because of that action. Add in that youth tend to skew left and you get a bit of a perfect storm. I want to believe that the ecosystem is ripe for some sort of centrist, fact-based news reporting, but not sure there is a big enough audience, unfortunately. And partly that is because the mainstream media outlets actually do a decent job of conveying the facts. It's just that it's 5min of every hour while the other 35 is talking heads "interpreting it for the layman". So if you're able to mentally sift through the bias and are willing to dig deeper yourself into other sources, you do get the basic information you need to become relatively fully educated. And I don't think that's the case these days with some of the more extreme networks. edit to add: I fully support your main point of encouraging people to read papers for themselves!