you must not frequent reddit. Sometimes reddit is the news. Last example I can think of was Ted Williams the man with the radio voice. He was brought to popularity on reddit, and was initially asking the community to help a guy out. During the wikileaks black out, reddit actively supported getting the cables out and accessible. So although the community likes to joke around and have fun.. or as you call it memes and in-jokes, there is plenty of news and plenty of differentiating opinions.

http://i.imgur.com/tgo9W.jpg - what news site would tell it like this. ( posted to reddit )