The problem I see is that much of the new is heavily slanted with inflammatory language. And I'm sure that's nothing new - that's how newspapers work. They have a story they want to tell.

But when reading comprehension is on the decline, then these stories aren't understood, regardless of whether they're basic reporting on the facts or a straight up opinion columnist. It's great to say that if we could all understand the basic facts then we'd be fine, but the basic fact of it is that we can get the same basic facts, but disagree about the why and how of those facts.

Easy example: for decades, we've had proof that the climate has been changing. That fact, most people are aware of and agree with. But a surprisingly large number of people will disagree with the why, and claim its because of natural temperature swings and humans aren't really impacting it. I am pretty firmly the other way, but I've had these arguments with people, and even after showing them data like this XKCD, they refuse to understand or change their minds/actions.