The Death of News

I want to write something today about the death of fair reporting in American news mediums. I know you aren't American, but U.S. cable news programs like CNN and NBC are shown everywhere today.
This dumbing down of the media in the U.S. effects everyone (the election of Bush is a prime example of how a dumbed down media makes incompetence president), even you. My premise is that the news media has become "infotainment" and is no longer news.
What is featured and dominates in electronic news broadcasts and is the written mediums is pabulum, as in the recent media obsession of the runaway bride, or of the Michael Jackson trial etc. Real news that is important to hear is being muzzled, largely through the efforts of the Republican Party and George Bush.
In their view, to open themselves to impartial reporting would be disaster, for it would expose the lies on which their plurality rests. So the Bush administration tries to silence the media by controlling it.
Reporters have become White House stenographers rather than journalists, and the public has become content enough to accept the Bush/Republican lies as reality. Reporters no longer dig for the truth. They accept the propaganda handouts from the White House. This can be seen in the TV ratings for news programs in the U.S. In the past 5 years viewer ship of news programs has decreased more than 40%.
It's because the public has given up on news and is tired of the pabulum the media gives us in place of what is really important. In a sense, we see there is little relevant news to watch, only propaganda and fluff. Bush officials and their allies (conservative corporate sponsors of TV and written media) punish journalists who dare say what is unpleasant to the Republican agenda. They are labeled as "liberals" or are denied access to information they need to find the truth. The quickest way for a good reporter to be damned by the Republicans is to tell the truth. They often claim the fair journalist is unpatriotic or un American. And too many Americans nod in agreement.
The American people are much to blame for sitting passively and giving up on demands for truth in the media. We have become unconscious and indoctrinated (by the Bush crowd). We have begun to give up the demand for truth and fairness in the media (why else would half of America have supported the attack on Iraq?) This worries me because Bush and the right wing Republicans are trying to take control of the American democracy and instead make it a Republican fiefdom of propaganda and lies.