[idoubtit]

Journalists often have at least two objectives: conveying information and attracting an audience (which might be directly related to selling ads). Providing a deep historical context does help with the quality of information, but it won't attract a large audience. The reality is even worse: it costs more to produce deep reports, but many viewers/readers will avoid those, and ads are harder to sell on historical subjects.

Most Americans now use social networks as their main source of information, with TV on second place, so I doubt this show an appetite for a better quality of information.

[nerdponx]

That's why a having a degree in something, where you have the knowledge relatively close at hand, is valuable. It can turn a deep report into a routine article.