Millions of Americans accept what they are told and think they understand what they see. And what they are told and what they see is most often news as a manipulated commodity. But the facts that really count rarely reach a significant number of the public's ears or eyes.

Also, most reporters know governments lie, mislead and deceive.They also know that the press is ostensibly there to keep an eye on governments, to dissect errors and omissions by offering more truthful counter-narratives. That was the role an adversarial media played during Watergate, during the Vietnam War, and even, if distastefully, during the Clinton administration.

Today, our media has abandoned this historic role, That part of the public that remembers the great journalists of the past knows it. Even journalistic greats admit it. Just before his death June 11, newscaster David Brinkley said of the medium that was his life. "Television news has become so trivial and devoid of content as to be little different from entertainment programming."