"There is, in my humble opinion, a mistaken belief that passively consuming The News somehow makes one informed."

This sentence makes me want to have faith in the humanity again!
People vote based on the news, that is even more irresponsible than not voting at all. If that´s your way to be informed all you are going to see is the world as the others see it. Example, Trump was designated on the news (I´m not defending him), but the reality is that if the news were to be listened he would have lost the elections even before they started.