The news media didn't slip into mediocracy, it started that way.


"Horace Greeley thought he could fix American newspapers—a medium that had been transformed by the emergence of an urban popular journalism that was bold in its claims, sensational in its content, and, in Greeley’s estimation, utterly derelict in its responsibilities."





How Horace Greeley Turned Newspapers Legitimate and Saved the Media From Itself
|
History

| Smithsonian Magazine