Tom Brokaw doesn't want to go back to when there were only three TV channels

For all the nostalgia among some in the media for returning to a time when there were only three nightly newscasts and just a handful of national newspapers, there's former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. He writes in the the Wall Street Journal:

The virtual town square has been wired and expanded—but the question remains whether more voices make for a healthier political climate. With a keystroke we can easily move from an online credible source of information to a website larded with opinion or deliberately malicious erroneous claims. Have we simply enlarged the megaphone, cranked up the decibel level, and rallied the like-minded without regard to facts or consequences?

Still, as a child of an earlier media era, I much prefer the contemporary news and information culture—even when I am occasionally singled out by one side or the other for something I've said. I like the range of choices, the new voices, the ease of cross-checking and getting the most obscure information with a minimum of effort.