... Direct democracy only works if you have a well informed populations
It can be argued that to get a well informed populis, it first requires a common corpus of truth. This is currently missing.
This has been missing (to greater and greater degrees) for the last 30 years
First cable, and now, the internet have siloed the news the population hears. Divide and conquer.
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The Fairness Doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was—in the FCC's view—honest, equitable, and balanced. The FCC eliminated the policy in 1987 and removed the rule that implemented the policy from the Federal Register in August 2011.
The fairness doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented.
The demise of this FCC rule has been considered by some to be a contributing factor for the rising level of party polarization in the United States.The main agenda for the doctrine was to ensure that viewers were exposed to a diversity of viewpoints.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine--------------------------------------
Rupert Murdoch and Ronald Reagan – Propaganda Palshttps://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/28/how-roy-cohn-helped-rupert-murdoch/https://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/05/rupert-murdoch-propaganda-recruit/... In 1987, the “Fairness Doctrine,” which required political balance in broadcasting, was eliminated, which let Murdoch pioneer a more aggressive conservatism on his TV network. In the mid-1990s, Murdoch expanded his political reach by founding the neoconservative Weekly Standard in 1995 and Fox News on cable in 1996. At Fox News, Murdoch hired scores of prominent politicians, mostly Republicans, putting them on his payroll as commentators.
Last decade, Murdoch continued to expand his reach into U.S. mass media, acquiring DirecTV and the financial news giant Dow Jones, which included The Wall Street Journal, America’s leading business news journal.
As his empire grew, Murdoch parlayed his extraordinary media power into the ability to make or break political leaders, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. In December 2014, the UK’s Independent reported that Ed Richards, the retiring head of the British media regulatory agency Ofcom, accused British government representatives of showing favoritism to Murdoch’s companies.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/government-favoured-rupert-murdochs-media-empire-says-outgoing-ofcom-chief-9947518.html
