Whats the point of having the media?

As far as I am concerned, all they do is twist the truth and malign people who do not deserve it. They all do it, and it is proven in just watching them. For example, if you remember Tony Hayward's persecution after the oil spill, as if it was his fault. It was as much his fault as the idiot manager on the rig, the idiots obama appointed to deal with it, etc. Yet every single news channel made it out to be his fault entirely. The media sells military secrets (ex- talking about wikileaks instead of letting the situation be contained) and distort public opinion. But really, why not just present the story like a C-Span style, and let people decide whats going on? The press make personal attacks (Im not a Palin fan, but to bring her child with down syndrome into it makes them out to be ). I understood the need for it 40 years ago, but today it seems to me that they cause most of the problems in our nation, by distorting the truth and covering their friends. So, why do people still buy this bullshit? Like I watch the O'Reily Factor and then turn on Hardball, and the story is entirely different. Now I personally trust Bill O'Reily above all of the other news people, but still, it should not be different facts between sources. According to NBC- unemployment was like at 6% according to one dude on their show, and that is total bullshit, and then a guy on the O'Reily Factor said it was like 9%, which seems a lot more accurate, but I thought it was like 8.5%. So why dont people see that the facts are not there, and yet still buy it all?