Yes, the advantage of the mainstream media used to be that their news coverage used to be, in effect, peer reviewed -- that was what editors were all about. Now they've discovered it's cheaper to fill the columns with opinion than with proper news and analyses, and that they can appeal to readers by echoing and reinforcing those readers' basest and most ignorant opinions.

Why should they worry if they're hastening the onset of another Dark Age?

Yeah, well . . .