Combining the system with a distributed syndication system would disintermediate publishers from readers while preserving, if desired, the ability to compile statistics on actual readership / viewership.

Privacy and metrics.

If you think about it, this is what broadcast media already accomplish nicely.

> 99% of the time I'm not looking for things the ministry of foreign policy doesn't want me to know

The other 1% is the news that actually matters.

The current system is vastly more invasive of reader privacy than the alternative suggested.

The publishing site, numerous third-party metrics providers, advertising providers, ISPs, and any MITM listener has access to the full metadata, at a minimum, and potentially full data.

You'd need to disintermediate via Tor (blocked or disabled by a great many sites -- Cloudflare and Google are particularly culpable here), or other means, to avoid this.

I've made a habit of using Tor extensively for a number of reasons, tab management among them (opening trivial articles in a Tor browser and having them wash out helps, very slightly, in managing my tab explosion in Firefox/Android).

When there is a missing airplane, and I just want to know relevant information? I'll get the relevant information in a straight forward, to the point fashion.

Local news? Straight to the point, no sensation, build up. Just what happened, what it means.

Military skirmish between two nations that the state has no stake in? Straight to the point.

You are concerned about the human rights abuses and political dissidents. If you need that to rationalize why you prefer to put up with privately owned news sources that can't monetize worth shit, then keep it up. They aren't exactly effective at turning people against about the establishment.

No, lots of things matter.

That 1% is important, and we absolutely need to make sure we have alternatives for that, but the point is that we shouldn't throw out that 99% just because it's not 100%.