Good post, SJ. I get the feeling when I watch network news that I am witnessing the opinions of has-beens who are secretly terrified that their irrelevance is showing.
I don't know about has-beens, but if you look around Canada today you'll see that hundreds of Canadians are protesting against... US gun laws! WTF? What has that got to do with us? Nothing. But the Canadian networks are full of American type political news, and these people seem to think this is our business, that it's something we ought to care about because... because... help me out here?
The impression the media gives is we're part of a community which we're not really a part of.