Inept local news

Grrrr -- I am so frustrated by the local news around me. I am consistently appalled at what constitutes news reporting from my local stations. I'm not sure if it's because this media market is so much smaller compared to everywhere else I've ever lived or what, but it's depressing. I feel like the local stations function far more as sensationalist blogs than actual news sources. They consistently report "stories" with zero actual reporting, research, or helpful information - their stories regarding schools this year so far have literally been copy and pastes of the school districts press releases and nothing more, for example. The current article that was just posted from a local news channel that pissed me off had this headline "Both COVID 19 Vaccines Cause Bell's Palsy" - if you actually click to read the article, the sub-headline, in much smaller text, says "why you shouldn't believe what you read on social media" -- and then the article goes on to discuss why the COVID vaccine is safe and how there is no evidence that it causes Bell's Palsy. WTH???? I expect that from clickbait trash online sources, but certainly not from what should be a reliable source for basic information. (This is also why I almost never get news from my local sources, but unfortunately they're all I have for local matters.....ugh!)