How can you say 'the fact is the press is just a reflection of what the public wants to know'. Really? Like the policies in the election are the ones that most matter to the public? Or take the stock market which is rammed down your throat every few minutes.....10% of the richest people are vested in that. So, why are the rest of us interested? I disagree strongly that the audience makes the news because the audience simply doesn't have the participation to make the agenda. Even something participatory like BBC's Question Time is a hoax as the audience is carefully vetted and the questions chosen accordingly.

Mainstream news is on the whole one way communication to scramble your nut and they do a really good job at doing that to people who are so busy trying to survive in a screwed up system that the crappy news is the only shot most get at any understanding of this world. Ordinary people have no stake in this system and if they did stories would be very different.