I completely agree about the need to develop critical thinking from an early stage in the educational process and to keep emphasizing it thereafter. Sadly in the USA the Republican Party is heavily invested in ensuring education is inadequate because they explicitly target the simple-minded; in the UK Marxist-influenced Political Correctness has been a problem for decades. I’m struck by how different France 24 is from Anglo news productions, because of its emphasis on providing context and analysis. Mostly the Anglo media just repeats what some authority figure has said regardless of the veracity of the statement — which makes them little more than propaganda amplifiers. Again, a lack of critical thinking which has led to a complete misunderstanding of what the mission of news organizations ought to be.