Lessee if I understand the business model - you need readers/viewers to sell papers, magazines, air time/ad space.
Balanced reporting requires people to read, analyze, think for themselves = boring + work. Sensationalistic media saturation = titilate and pander to base instincts, no though/work involved. Bulk of Amurrican public is stupid/lazy. Which sells more? See, capitalism at work.
The only way this will change is when we make the price of stupidity and sloth a lot higher or get people to believe that they have a stake in all this. It has been said that it is maybe 5% of the population that actually carries/preserves the culture of a society. While there's no shortage of finger pointing, IMHO, all this violence stuff is a sickness of the heart. You can't blame it on any one factor. During the Viet Nam era there was a saying to the effect that a society that hates its young has no future. I can't put a catch phrase on this one yet, but I believe we ALL need to get better, I just wish I knew how. M2
[This message has been edited by Mike in VA (edited April 29, 1999).]