Dan Rather: A friendly reminder to some of my colleague in the press:

[PSPS]

7. Lazy journalism

What Rather says is true. A lazy reporter will want to minimize the amount of time they get out of their car, so they pick a diner, file a report, and it's "30."

I remember when, in the immediate aftermath of the loss of the fairness doctrine, limbaugh started his radio wurlitzer. The networks would do almost the same thing. They would go to some little town, tune in the (usually one) local radio station, listen to limbaugh for a while, and file a report about "what the average person HERE thinks" based solely on what he heard on limbaugh's SYNDICATED radio show which, at the time (and maybe true today,) had mostly paid "callers" on the air to gin up the manufactured outrage.