Maybe it isn't, maybe it is; the point is you would never know what you're not being shown.
Exactly. If everything I hear about requires a plane ticket I miss all the cool things in a 60 minute drive.
It's not hiding something, it's showing popular content more often. The intent wasn't to limit discussions to politics.
Think locality of news. Do I need to know what's happening in New York or my current city? While my current city isn't big and thus "not as popular" decisions made locally can have a larger impact on me.