This from the Huffington Post:
Why Does Commercial News Suck? -- by Daniel Brook

This week, I watched the same piece of information reported on commercial TV and PBS. At 6:30, NBC's Brian Williams went into shocked-and-breathless mode to announce that American life expectancy had hit a whopping 77.9 years. Then at 7:00, I heard Jim Lehrer calmly announce the same fact and put it in context. While this is the highest life expectancy the US has yet achieved, it falls behind 40 other nations. The context changes everything. If you were watching Brian Williams, you'd be popping the champagne corks. If you were watching Jim Lehrer, you'd be contemplating moving to Costa Rica--one of several third world countries with longer life expectancies than the US.

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Mannycongo, one of the folks who commented on the article had this to add:
'How we got to the point where our "mainstream" media is a mouthpiece for the State is a little less important than the fact that IT IS A MOUTHPIECE FOR THE STATE. And that, my friends is an attribute of fascism.'