over polarized political news

I found a nice CNN op-ed by Julian Zelizer that spells out many things about modern "news" that bother me but I have not been able to articulate as well.  Here is a link to the original and I have quoted some passages that stand out to me in particular below:

"The insistence on dividing politics into clear categories of "liberal" versus "conservative" ... has remained so through our current age, when everything must be red or blue. ... public opinion is often all over the place on key policy issues, news coverage, like politicians, tends to play into a more polarized vision of politics."

"The problem is that this kind of news coverage actually plays a big role in polarizing the electorate. Rather than presenting nuance and areas of agreement, television news has tended to offer politics that stress one position or the other. The divisions are further amplified by the fact that more Americans now tune in to networks, and websites, that present the news from a partisan perspective. The cycle never ends. "

"... the fight between them was more important than the substance of what they said. While humans love to watch confrontation and conflict, there were many people like ...Walter Cronkite in this formative era of news who didn't believe that it was the job of their industry to satisfy those demands. Rather it was to provide the best information and reporting about the big stories of the day. The rest was for the entertainment shows."

"Too much of television news is now about the fight between the panelists, not the issues. ... For decades, there has been a premium on panelists who can light up the airwaves with dramatic and contentious arguments. ..., viewers often tune in to see the panelists go after one another rather than try to rationally work through the problems of the day. The incentives for television hosts and panelists is to be confrontational and to be shocking. That draws the ratings."

"The medium has changed even more dramatically since the 1990s. Rather than having left and right on one show, we have now divided left and right on different networks. Media personalities ... argue about the people who are no longer in the room, ..."

"One of the worst effects of these trends has been that the public has decreasing trust in the news as an institution. A recent study by the Newseum Institute found that only 24% polled believed the news is unbiased. Last year, Gallup found that trust in the news media has reached an all-time low."