My own preference - like another participant's regarding the 2008 elections - is also for a 'dialogue of ideas', at least in the print media, which are probably more suitable than broadcast media for that level of seriousness. Yet we are obliged to live with the reality that particularly in the US the media too, like almost all other activities in this republic, are owned and run by folk who are 'just trying to make a buck'. See the disjunct? Thoughtfulness and profit do not make easy bedfellows.

The present FCC chairman, a lamentable example of the worst sort of political appointee, appears to have been put in place to do all he can to encourage the buck-makers at the expense of this republic's population's need to be well-informed. It's no surprise. Citizens who know the facts are not so easily led.

We need, urgently, either to reform the way we elect our politicians, (no more mindless media circuses as an excuse to sell shameless journalism, no more offices awarded to the highest bidder in preference to the best candidate, no more facilitating mass fraud with electronic voting toys, for example) or to learn to live with the shoddy politics and the politicians we deserve.