Agree a piece of informative media - in theory - should be taken on it's own merits alone. But to live in that world we would need to forgo the ability to make

Agree a piece of informative media - in theory - should be taken on it's own merits alone. But to live in that world we would need to forgo the ability to make informed assumptions about how well thought out the media itself is. That's why research papers are intended to be read as though you don't know the author - it's purely data based & logical, any calls to background knowledge requires an explicit reference. That's just not practical in the real world.