“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.”

-Steve Jobs

Ironic considering Jobs conspired to fix prices with media partners including News Corp. Either way, network TV isn't the only news. There's plenty of non-profit news and non-predatory news in the world besides network TV.

Wasn't there more to this? I can't find the exact quote, but I believe Jobs also said that he doesn't blame people for this because after a hard day of work (etc.) you really want to relax and turn your brain off, and TV is perfect for that - in fact you burn fewer calories watching TV than you do sleeping.

He also said "We don’t think that televisions and personal computers are going to merge. We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on."

Of course he was kind of wrong about televisions and PCs not merging - see youtube, netflix, Apple TV, etc.

Mainstream media is not blameless in the least. Pushing psychological buttons to create addiction to what is very little else than entertainment and biased opinion. Rarely if ever are there references to sources. Instead there are interpretations and nth hand accounts that you are expected to accept as is. It's there plain for everyone to see, yet rarely is it taken seriously for what it is, propaganda.

There has always been "better quality" news and worse quality news available to people. We simply have more of both now.

Right and people gravitate heavily towards the bad. The most watched cable news by far is FOX which has been caught dead to rights conspiring with government, with campaigns and telling intentional lies in furtherance of propaganda goals. And they don't suffer any loss in loyalty. That is 100% the faults of the viewers who elect to be deceived in ways they enjoy.