The plan I see the plan !

I have a practical proposal for dealing with a problem. The problem is that journalists don't report important facts often enough. Therefore readers and viewers don't know the facts. The problem is that journalists tend to assume that if a careful news consumer would know something then "everyone knows that."

A solution would be for them to commission a poll which investigated their readers' knowledge. They won't just do this. Polls are expensive. People don't like to be quizzed and public ignorance is always shocking. Newspapers will be reluctant to spend money in order to insult their readers.

So how about two polls, one of their subscribers and one of the general public. Washington Post readers don't know as much as we should (I admit I read it and so do you) but we know more than US adults on average. So the Post can find out how ignorant its subscribers are *and* flatter them.