Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont wants to know why the media sucks at teaching us about "the greatest problems facing our country." Clip at bottom (Hat tip Kvetcher).

Bernie says “the function of the media is to educate you to live in a democracy.” Really? If the media ought to serve a single function rather than lots of functions determined by lots of people with different goals, I imagine the state would have to take over, perhaps allowing Secretary of Mass Media Sanders to provide a list of appropriate topics along with guidelines about how the populace might be educated about them.

Appealing as that sounds, I have a crazy three-point plan that would be preferable:

(1) the US government creates a new communications infrastructure that drastically reduces the cost of entry to the media.

(2) The government then surrenders regulatory control of the content of the developing medium, while creating or facilitating the development of independent bodies that ensure the coherence of its technical protocols and functioning of its physical infrastructure.

(3) Meanwhile, increased national and international wealth produce greater diversity--political and otherwise--in the ranks of those wealthy enough to purchase or finance larger media outlets. Theoretically, this should include people who wish to finance media that focus on substantive issues, even "educate" us, rather than merely giving us the trivial but lucrative ephemera Mr. Sanders dislikes.

All of this should produce the most diverse media landscape the country has ever seen, and should give us an unprecedented range of options with which to educate ourselves on an unprecedented range of topics.

Oh wait. All of that's already happened. And the mob still hasn't fallen in line behind Sanders's political platform?? Goodness. Maybe we're just not that into you, Bernie. And changing that probably will require state intervention.