It's more about the media than anything else.
Talk to anyone who has been personally involved in a big story, and ask them what they thought of the media coverage.
I remember how they covered the 1989 earthquake out here. Holy crap, what a farce.
When you look at their science coverage (and I'm talking about the basic newscasts here. Some of the detailed coverage by knowledgable people isn't bad.) it makes any reasonable person wonder about how accurate they are about economics, politics, and other things.