“Food, Ivan Arnoldovich, is a subtle thing. One must know how to eat, yet just think – most people don’t know how to eat at all. One must not only know what to eat, but when and how.’ (Philip Philipovich waved his fork meaningfully.) ‘And what to say while you’re eating. Yes, my dear sir. If you care about your digestion, my advice is – don’t talk about bolshevism or medicine at table. And, God forbid – never read Soviet newspapers before dinner.’ ‘M’mm . . . But there are no other newspapers.’ ‘In that case don’t read any at all. Do you know I once made thirty tests in my clinic. And what do you think? The patients who never read newspapers felt excellent. Those whom I specially made read Pravda all lost weight.”
Love this, but since the book has an anti-Soviet sentiment, I don't think we could generalize this quote. In USSR you would read only what you should and you didn't really have a choice. Freedom of press was something impossible to imagine.
I cannot say that everything what we read, or choose to read today is worth reading but there is a good press, which is at times difficult to find, but you will never get to it if you don't filter.
I see little difference CNN has clear political angle so does FOX which is basically directed by owners interests. That's a very short through to the USSR old times. If I ever turn on either one I feel that I am back to USSR. (I lived in US 1995-2004) and came back to US in 2015 the difference is very stark I would imaging when it was happening gradually it would be less noticeable vs going from 2000 +/- version to today. In USSR you had a small group of people (Politburo) controlling among other things all the media. If you take the number of people in US exerting major influence on media through ownership it's pretty much smaller number than even members of Politburo.
― Mikhail Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog