However bad the US Media may be, the alternatives are so much worse. And the fact that the alternatives appear to be winning isn't a huge surprise, considering the mess the world is in.
The traditional news media has a track record that includes a ton of errors, but it is still far better than everything else. You open social media, and its a flood of content that does not accurately reflect the world.
I'd judge them not by the errors but by the willingness to issue retractions and corrections.
in the absence of truth, you must operate on faith alone
Empiricism is overrated in the current era. Pure reason is underappreciated. A triangle has only three sides. Two parallel lines will never meet. Wikipedia edit wars and reliable sources can't change that. If you wish, you can go far by building from basics and catching inconsistencies. You can park it there, or you can speculate about the motives of those who would abuse reason.