Many disagree with me on this, but I strongly believe that the media has a huge part to play in the political direction of a country. They're arguably more powerful than the politicians themselves. That's one way I agree with Trump.
I'm sorry to hear that your tinnitus has prevented you from participating in local politics recently. Hopefully that will change soon, and you can get back to it again. I'm not particularly well informed, especially compared to others in this thread including yourself, but I find it interesting and a bit of a distraction from tinnitus for a while