Eitan Hersh wants people to stop confusing news consumption for meaningful civic engagement.
He’s won me over.
Not my sixth grader’s Social Studies teacher, though, because Kiddo is still required, once a week, to consumes some news artifact and summarizes it in writing for a Current Events grade.
Confusing news consumption with important work is taught.
YoRocko! 
Yes, it is taught for sixth graders. Perhaps the trick is to build it into history classes or other subjects at higher grades, the better to make it part of the mental furniture.