Good point, and one that is frequently lost. Similarly, Osama bin Laden is stereotyped here as being “against freedom” when he is primarily opposed to US military presence and influence over domestic affairs.

Who was it who said we get the government we deserve? We get the journalism we deserve (demand) as well.

One could argue that the Reagan Era, the Reagan movement, was a public reaction against televised coverage of the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, with all their troubling implications. Reagan told Americans that America was good, that they were good, and they had no need to feel guilty or make any significant reassessments of their country or themselves and their way of life.

We are still living in the Reagan era. Most of our politicians in both parties are still afraid to wander too far from that “America as City on a Hill” narrative that Reagan turned into a national dogma. The television news networks share that fear.