Television has been called the plug in drug, and with good reason. You allow yourself to be calmed by a hum that is all part of the consciousness-lowering, mood altering experience. Add the tantalizing flicker of the images and you have a drug that puts you in a pleasurable and passive mental state. These arguments are used by people who believe that Television influences you. The media cannot dictate how we are to think, but they do set the agenda on what we should be thinking about.
People absorb what is immediate.
They take for granted that what is seen is reality. They believe that the news is honest and correct. The responsibility of the newsroom and the media is to conduct itself in the public trust. If they ever knowingly revoke that trust they are shut down. The people have embraced the media as the only source for news and information for their well being.