It’s The Media’s Fault
The number of periodical or semi-periodical publications in the United States surpasses all belief...(but)...in America three quarters of the bulky newspaper put before you will be full of advertisements and the rest will usually contain political news or just anecdotes; only at long intervals and in some obscure corner will one find one of those burning arguments which for us are the readers’ daily food.
- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, originally published in 1835