It's nothing new to suggest that many American voters, regardless of political affiliation, formulate their opinions on the basis of misinformation, misguided perceptions, and oversimplified assessments of a candidate's character. Were these voters to represent the majority, we'd develop a political leadership that made its decisions on the basis of whim - often at the expense of more sound methods of calculation.
The initial failure of the Bernanke/Paulson plan has been interpreted more than once as a great success for this "bumper sticker" approach to politics - a decision that perhaps may have required a more comprehensive grasp on the plan's actual content than on its cover. The following 24 hours saw the greatest one-day stock market crash in American history.
The first step in fomenting a culture of well-informed decision-making is to provide reliable information, organized in such a way that allows the voter to make his/her own conclusions. It's a matter of national interest that the voter be informed in a manner that is expressly conducive to individual interpretation.
The corporate news media do provide an important role in our country's democratic processes. But that role must be counterbalanced by a viable alternative source of information that is both reliable and unbiased.