. . . usually fictive entertainment . . .
"Fictive"
1)capable of, or pertaining to imaginative creation.A good word to know, and certainly not irrelevant. But I am more interested in the perspective which inheres in the choice of what to report and what to leave unsaid.
2) imaginary, feigned.
Are you interested only in what is unusual and dramatic? Then the millions of people who did not lose or gain jobs, the scores of millions of people who went to church on Sunday as usual--that is, most of society, most of the time--are invisible to you.
And that is, IMHO, a substantial explanation for the leftishness of journalism. And that is exerbated by deadline-driven superficiality.
Still, most journalism is little to do with fact (or 'non-fiction' as you originally referenced). The lamestream is mired in FICTION (and ideology), not factual analysis.
Incidentally, I do not disagree with your other more general observations about the hubristic choices offered (imposed, really ...) by the media elites.