In my humble opinion column

With protestors around the world firebombing energy companies, chucking grenades at police, and setting cars on fire — not to mention the constant threat of wildfires across California and the Amazon jungle —  the world is literally burning.

But you wouldn't know it judging by the lack of coverage from American media and their fixation with the Trump impeachment inquiry.

As centuries of discontent about global inequality comes to the fore, you'd think this was the story of our time: young people pissed off about the massive wealth gap between rich and poor. 

When our civilization inevitably disintegrates and aliens make their way to our terrestrial hellscape, they might look for evidence of our decline.

And, if they stumble upon almost any American newspaper or a working cable TV, they'll find that our civilization was obsessed with political theater and ignored perilous existential threats, like social inequality and climate change.

By now the steady drip of daily depositions and palace intrigue is exhausting the country. 

But if you talk to most cynical media professionals, they'll merely shrug their shoulders and suggest the problem is the audience.

Maybe.

The other two problems start with "a" — advertising and attention.

Advertising dollars rely on our attention spans, which have rapidly disintegrated thanks to reality television and social media.

It's a sort of ouroboros, the dreaded serpent eating its own tail-type situation.

We crave short form, salacious content because that's what the media is giving us.

The media claims that's what we want.

Advertisers don't care either way, as long as they're peddling their products to the most people possible.

So, what to do?

It's true that, as consumers and the vital linchpin to this horrendous model, we should demand the media do their jobs, even if that means losing attention and advertisers.

But, if they lose advertisers, how will they earn a living?

State-funded grants and steep paywalls will help — we pay for literally everything else under the sun.

Why not information?