I agree with much of what you say, but there are constantly new targets to dig on, and like fishing, most of the time I don't get a bit, but when I do that one bite, a sharp pull on the line it seems to replenish me.    I have found that one used to be able to put in a search argument, and the likelihood of getting some returns from a relatively unknown source that would give a different angle on a story where high.  Now, no matter what I search on, it returns crap not related to search and always from WaPo, or CNN, or Guardian, or CBS etc.