If the world were healthy, would there be daily news?

James Wood comes (New Yorker 13 Apr 09) across in the social criticism of George Orwell, born Eric Blair, a wonderful example of the how the world has changed -- since 1914 and the Great War, "the sound of the radio is more normal than the sound of birds." In Orwell's words, "in a healthy world there would be no demand for tinned foods, aspirins, gramophones, gaspipe chairs, machine guns, daily newspapers, telephones, motor-cars, etc. etc." The daily newspapers are failing -- maybe our world is getting better?