For someone who claims to like and respect Aaron, you are rather dismissive of him and his "rant".

Your recommendation to find your news, local or otherwise, might have been valid 50 years ago, but it isn't today as most news ( local, national and international ) is owned by a handful of conglomerates who more or less share the same value. Your recommendation is like telling people who don't like facebook to use instagram instead. Ignoring the fact that facebook owns instagram.

I do agree that actual journalism protects democracy. I'd be interested in what you consider actual journalism.