Well I am not going to deny your experience/impression, but my opinion is that news is valuable to the degree it has actionable information that is accurate.

e.g. Knowing which areas are more likely to be dangerous means I can avoid those areas. If an area is regularly the site of dangerous altercations, I know to be more careful around it. But if the news white-washes that actual factual information it becomes much less useful as actual actionable information.