I agree with your points on news, but disagree completely with your modern "interpretation" on liberals(dems) and conservatives (repubs). I don't think that liberals support more government, I think they just support different things than republicans. Republicans like to think that they support less government, but the harsh reality is that they like big military, they like large confusing tax code policies, they are all for public policy for personal values(abortion laws to give just one example). Republicans don't support smaller governments at all. Conservatives CLAIM that they are for less government, but I can think of very few republican politicians that actually support that with action. Now if you were referring to libertarians, then I agree, they definitely support smaller government.