We delude ourselves because television s singular appeal has very little to do with how superficial it is. Television is a great conveyor of emotion, real or feigned. It has its brutally honest aspects. For instance, Richard Nixon could fool an ASNE lunch crowd into thinking he was a statesman. On TV, he was an oleaginous crook.
People identify with television.
They feel that the local haircuts who read them a hysterical version of the news are their families. The haircuts are personalities. We can make our newspapers into personalities in a classic newspaper way. We can write our opinions as if we care about them, as if they matter. All that requires is doing the editorials that make emotional sense instead of the ones that seem to be necessary.