As soon as I began to use the Apple News app on my iPhone, I discovered something unexpected. Every Apple “News” feed is curated to serve the same function as the periodicals found near the cash register at Piggly Wiggly in the 1970s. Such publications as the Weekly World News or the National Enquirer each served up an eye-catching pile of flaming garbage that was guaranteed to draw the attention of any passerby. The “genius” of serial sex offender Roger Ailes was simply to have each of his entertainers perform in the manner of a legitimate journalist while shoveling anti-democracy stories – a clever mix of fact, fiction, and selective omission – into the gaping maws of the [willing] marks.

The simple act of having presenters show fewer “Batboy” pictures while wearing expensive suits (rather than the more appropriate circus-themed attire) allowed the target audience – misogynist white supremacists Christian nationalists – to claim that the neo-Nazi media they consume is legitimate news.

Heavily subsidized by myriad anti-democracy individuals and organizations – from the aforementioned brain-blighted proto-fascist Americans to despotic oil dictatorships and oligarchies, to the modern robber barons – this model is the model for the future. The former fourth estate is in a profoundly terrible state, incapable of positively contributing to the healthy function of a democratic system. As miserable and incompetent as the industry of news media is at conveying true and pertinent information, it is today the best that it will ever be for the rest of the life of any person alive today.

The same will be true tomorrow.

And the next day.

Ad infinitum…