In a quick sentence;
The biggest difference from the News today from what we had historically is now the News has to sell their product to the masses.
Think about it... in the old days, we had few channels and often they all had the same programming (more so when the President was speaking), now I can always throw in a DVD, listen to my I-Pod, or play AH. Heck, if I wanted to I could not listen to ANY news of any kind for the rest of my life (as things are now) and it wouldn't affect me.
Fortunately, I do listen to the news and I have to several different agencies to really have any clue what is going on because each one is pushing an agenda or an opinion.
(edit: seems as though Hajo and I have the same opinion about the news having to be sold to the masses)