Anyway, I don’t think the last line is really too much. It reads like a semi-editorial piece anyway, and those semi-editors love to tack maudlin end lines on things. I doubt this will change if the world goes to hell.

Also, if anything, I think the world going to Hell would give journalists more opportunity to editorialize, or at least to do so more transparently (I can’t think of any who doesn’t, truth be told). Giving your opinion outright is a much more honest way of doing things than ignoring facts that don’t support it.