Well, my comments go back to what I said about journalism not being a monolithic culture. My view is even more extreme -- I'd say there are actually many _cultures_ of journalism.
I think you're right, in regards to some of them. There are expedient and exploitative scum right there in the very open at the very top of the journalism world -- in some parts of it. (And you're also right about the bias of the various media used to _implement_ journalism in the contemporary world. There are cultural biases that make conservative journalism next to impossible, and there are explicit technical bias built into all the different media -- different media, different technical biases. In many cases, these technical biases make conservative journalism difficult.
In the "mainstream" the situation is hopeless. But if a person "shops around" and knows what he's looking for, he can usually find what he wants in terms of objective info. Mark W.
I hear you saying, and I think I agree, that pieces of the truth--big pieces of the truth even--reside in things like advertisements which are more truth than poetry. Other pieces of truth, perhaps, in dogs that don't bark. But you have to know where to look, and who it is sensible to believe about what.
But the "mainstream"--the quasi-official propaganda organs which we are practically ordered to believe--is hopeless. And they are the "trains" of your parable . . .