Professional Wrestling Rings?

I recently read for another communications class an interesting quote.

Ralph E. Hanson, in his book Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, said, "Political talk shows are staged with props and costumes to generate the highest possible level of conflict. In essence, they are the professional wrestling rings of journalism."

So say I decide that commentators are indeed journalists. How can I take anything they say seriously? If they are merely on a stage in their proper costumes with appropriate props....and can be related to professional wrestling (something I will never take seriously), how am I or an average American supposed to distinguish between what is real and what isn't?

Our book author, Jeffrey Scheuer, says that "we must use journalism to see the world as it is."

I don't know what I am really getting at here, other than that I am confused. And if I am confused then so are millions of others across the country. What is journalism, what is not? Where is it okay to get our information? Where is it not? Do we label political debate shows as entertainment, or as news forums? Are bloggers journalists? Is journalism even applicable to the world that we live in? Like everything else within the realms of journalism, must our concept of the term change and evolve, or do we hold to the traditions and principles of the past?

It's all so confusing to me. I wish there was clarity. Maybe you can afford me some. Though Scheuer gives me little hope when he says, "journalism has blurry boundaries."