I love to study the Greeks. It never gets old.
Plato was Greek. He recognized that education was about getting people to focus on the right thing. Facts are nice, but if we yield our attention to the peripheral ones, we become illiterates and beget them.
Media--the "great stereopticon" as Weaver called it--gets the most mileage by "wagging the dog" with true facts. The problem is actually larger than the MSM. It is monolithic. And here there is a special perk for living among Americans who are in the know. Their expertise shines when they remind others that phrases like "wagging the dog" yields ambiguous meanings: "Some suggest the dog is public opinion, and the tail represents the media; the dog is the media, and the tail is political campaigns; or the dog is the people, and the tail is the government."
Reading Plato closely can help cure this disease. He teaches us to focus on the right thing.
One caveat remains. Learning to see through the eye develops an increased sensitivity to error. This can be a problem. This is why Socrates cautioned against misanthropy.
A physician's precaution is needed. The greatest care is required when giving attention to disease. Why the fascination with the causes of death, facts that can only be treated with sanitary regulations, with gloves and mask, with hand washing afterward?
Today college students read Homer like yesterday's mothers giving birth: in the hospital with utensils infected. The particular virus here is one that diverts the proper focus of the eye of the soul toward peripheral facts.