"[U]ntil the late 1890s, individuals weren't expected to make rational choices when voting"

Interesting take on media, voting and the idea of an "informed electorate" from Will Rinehart at Cato Unbound.

There was a time when newspapers wore their partisan affiliations on their sleeves. If you look around a bit, you'll still find newspapers with "Democrat" and "Republican" in their names -- in fact, my Garrison Center mailing list includes 32 of the former and eight of the latter. "Objective journalism" is a fairly recent invention, and pretty much a fake one.