There are meaningful arguments to be had about the media, and also the ideal of an informed populace. This is not one of them:

Greater access to media, ironically, has reduced the share of Americans who are politically informed. The most significant effect of more media choice is not the wider dissemination of political news but mounting inequality in political involvement. Some people follow news more closely than in the past, but many others avoid it altogether.

First of all, like it or not, people will in the end decide for themselves if they wish to pay attention to the outside world. I’d like for more to consider it — obviously — but unanimous participation is impossible, some will ignore it, no matter what.

That said, the author here is already conflating mainstream media participation with the general state of being informed, as if you know squat unless you watch the evening news…

Now that Americans can choose among countless channels and Web sites, the role of motivation is key. Many people’s reasons for watching television or surfing the Web do not include learning about politics. Today’s media users seek out the content they really like. Unfortunately for a political system that benefits from an informed citizenry, few people really like the news.

Consider the broadcast networks’ desperate struggle to hold on to an ever-shrinking news audience. The problem is not that shallow, loud or negative coverage of politics causes viewers to tune out in disgust. It’s that for many people shallow, loud entertainment offers greater satisfaction, and it always has. Now, such entertainment is available around the clock and in unprecedented variety. Television viewers have not abandoned the evening news out of frustration — they just found something more enjoyable. Even Katie Couric can’t stanch that trend.

Now, I tend to overwhelmingly get my news from online. Along with the usual sources, I like to search for background info on my own, partly out of pure curiosity, but mostly because I don’t think taking popular media at face value is a good idea. As far as the majors go, the “choice” is actually much smaller than commonly portrayed, as each of the Big Boys is owned by a few conglomerates, and they all tend to follow the exact same stories w/ the exact same slant (FoxNews only wears it on their sleeve more, the difference isn’t much). I don’t watch the evening news at all, and when I have CNN on, it’s either in the background for possible real-time post fodder, or in the same sense that makes people slow down and gawk when they see an accident on the freeway. The only TV news show I would ever watch for the show itself and not the expectation of unintentional tragicomedy would be Countdown, and I don’t get that channel anymore.

That’s how I deal with problems of pop media. Others just ignore it completely. Among those that ignore it, many do so as an extension of withholding a sense of legitimacy from the ruling elite, feeling that since they tend to unjustifiably back up the status quo anyway there’s no reason to take them seriously. I’m just fine with the latter group, because instead of being ignorant (like they’re portrayed here), they’re actually saying “ok, I’ve seen enough”.

The flip side of the entertainment fan who doesn’t have to watch the news is the news junkie who now can follow it constantly. A relatively small segment of the population — my own research indicates it’s less than a fifth — specializes in news content. But such people consume so much of it that the total amount of time Americans spend watching, reading and listening to news has not declined even though many people have tuned out. […]

Greater media choice is both gratifying and a powerful political asset for those people who read op-eds and then move on to NPR, Instapundit and Wolf Blitzer. […]

If those are his idea of alternate sources, he’s even dumber than I thought.  But I digress…

So, some people who are already predisposed to paying attention can now take what the media tosses them & give to it the intellectual equivalent of a full-cavity search, some people who’ve consciously written it off can continue to do so, and the rest have more to entertain themselves. And the problem here is _____?

Edit: For more WaPo-specific slaggery on this, Vache Folle has you covered.