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Yeah, I hear you there. I've more-or-less given up on television news. Entirely see where you're coming from on the whole beltway elite thing, X. The other thing to mention is the sheer bias. It's not, I don't think, because these newsmen actually care one way or another, it's just that sensationalism sells. Fox News, for instance, is pretty damn infamous as a bastion of conservatism; at the same time, I don't think they're so much giving voice to the right wing as they are exploiting it.*

I usually get my news from various internet sources. It's interesting- the bias is still there, but the very nature of the internet makes it- I don't know, not easier to see through so much, but the biases almost average out if you get a wide enough sample, and it's a lot easier to check out alternative sources that may have more information. There's always the option of looking up cites for dubious claims, and more opportunity for different perspectives to gain voice. Even the big media companies online presences are more palatable.

I guess with televised and dead-tree media, you're sort of a captive audience- you either accept what they tell you or you change the channel. There's no opportunity for feedback or correction, whereas most online news sources offer some sort of comment system. Also, you're pretty much limited to one source of data at a time- newspapers are awkward to shuffle around, and if you switch between two channels during the middle of a report, you're going to miss some of it; with the internet, you get the non-linearity, for want of a better word, that print media has, but you're also able to access multiple sources with the click of a button and switch back and forth really easily. Also, it's a lot easier to find international news. You can't get the Beeb, for example, in the States on basic cable- best you can do is, iirc, a half-hour bit on PBS every saturday at eleven in the evening.

And I mean, yes, you're probably not going to get the complete picture if you select your own news sources like that, but I'd argue it'll be a hell of a lot more complete than if you let the mainstream media select for you.

*You could probably find an example on the left; it's just that left-wing biases don't stick out as much to me, though, probably because I tend to agree with them.