Agreed. I personally believe that checking the news everyday is akin to something like a ‘news overdose’. There’s nothing wrong with spending just 15 minutes per week. At least for me, that’s a far healthier dose.
I think a lot of discourse is colored by the midwest. The midwest influenced movies (what does a US neighborhood look like? are there hills/trees/snow?), TV, radio, and literature. I imagine midwest newspapers to be like southern newspapers, 2-3 broadsheets per section if that.
I wonder how many words i can write on this subject
Of course, the downside of that approach is that the people who control the (relatively few) major newspapers effectively get to define what "informed" means - and, most importantly, what it does _not_ include.