Letters: More news, less punditry

Re “Media upheaval is bad news,” Column, Feb. 2

Michael Hiltzik rightly spotlights the fact that hard news is sharply declining in many newer forms of media.

Commentary, often poorly worded, is disguised as news, even at outlets that have admitted they are subordinating high standards of journalism to pursuit of high advertising revenues available when the audience is large. Worse, many are politically partisan and tend to attract people who are unsophisticated and use these commentators as their only source of “news.”

The result is that the quality of civic discourse is in steep decline, with serious adverse impacts on the functioning of our democratic institutions.

John C. Nangle

Palm Springs

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