The Drew Pearson Fallacy goes farther back than this unfortunately

"Now sadly, what Ms. Roberts said in 2000--that to many Americans, the reference to Dingell-Norwood sounded like a "guy from Washington doing Washington-speak"--probably had an element of truth.  But to me, then and now, that was something for journalists (and historians) to fight against, for the simple reason that a citizenry that no longer cares about the legislation Congress does or does not pass will yield the field to lobbyists and contributors who still do.  Yet Cokie Roberts was not only accepting, but welcoming, the new world of the 21st century in which journalism--especially tv journalism--began pandering to an uninformed public.  Indeed, the implication of what she said was that politicians would be foolish to try to do educate voters.  And I was amazed that someone with her background could take such a position--but there it was." DK

"Indeed, the implication of what she said was that politicians would be foolish to try to do educate voters." DK

What about what I have dubbed the Drew Pearson Fallacy implication: 

that journalists (not politicians, or academicians) would be foolish enough to try to educate voters?

But also, the political structural problems giving rise to this sad journalistic heritage has never been directly addressed politically here. It is written into the constitution....

(Lorch) Newspaper Editor's retort to assembled Scholars (read: Professor Kaiser): 

"Don't you know what the newspaper business is all about, you bloody fool...For the past ten minutes you've been trying to make me out as some kind of hideous ogre devoid of any shred of social consciousness.

"You act as though you think the job of a newspaper is to be an educational institution for the masses.

"Education is your job, not mine.

"I run a business. That business is to make money. My stock in trade is something called 'news'. It isn't really news all the time-- it's entertainment in the guise of news quite often.... I am not going to print educational stuff that'll put me in the poor house."  Terms search: Lorch

The pamphleteering heritage of colonial rebellion, the contagion of liberty, so to speak, never dies unless properly extinguished by other institutions.