The TV is also criticised for low quality content but still it is a fundamental medium and the way it is managed is regarded as a basic benchmark for democracies.

So of it isnt twitter. We can agree that we as a society need a social sounding board.

I would second this argument. I quit Twitter about two years ago after realizing that I mostly don't care about the things that are "happening right now" according to Twitter.

You've never used it in a crisis situation then. I've used it to be better informed about several hurricanes near me, political developments, a possible nuclear facility problem affecting family, the Tohuku earthquake, the Macondo well blowout, and numerous other things.

Twitter has been a prime source of first-hand real-time information in many many crises. Just because you haven't used it that way doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Perhaps you should curate your feeds a bit better.

This is like saying "the library sucks, most of their books are totally irrelevant to me"-- on Twitter, you curate your own feed.