The average person is to dumb to deserve quality reporting is another way to put what you just said. Even if that might be true, it doesn't change anything about my perception of modern journalism.
I dont remember claiming there is any sort of conspiracy. All I am saying is that you can't expect people to pay for low quality output. The other side seems to pretend that in capitalism, the consumer is supposed to pay to improve the product quality. I seriously doublt it works that way. What do media companies expect, a sort of loan from consumers for future quality articles?