The first stage of the “filtering” process is the choice what to report and what NOT to report.
When you don’t hear/read stated facts and commentary at all, there can’t even be a personal vetting process.
People who get their news solely from a DBM newspaper or DBM TV news are woefully uninformed.
Example: The day after the Congressional hearings on Libya, the NY Times did not even have a report about the hearings on the front page.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/nyt-eds-no-shame-in-libya-hearings-138425.html
good point.