People read the papers not in the hopes of learning something new, but in the expectation of being told what they already know. This is a form of living death. Its apotheosis is the daily poll in USA Today, which informs us what percentage of a small number of unscientifically selected people called a toll number to vote on questions that cannot possibly be responded to with a yes or no.

Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert: Second Edition (ed. University of Chicago Press, 2017) - ISBN: 9780226461052