[stock_toaster]

I often wonder if the news/media has been purposefully weakened as an institution over time, so as to keep the populace more ignorant and controllable by people in power.

I guess it goes in cycles though. Apparently in the 1890s it was _actually worse_!?

[Mirioron]

I don't think the media has been weakened. I think that the media has always been this bad. Perhaps even worse. The public just didn't know about it, because it was a lot harder to verify the facts through other means.