>>717102879Even if that was true, the end of the Fairness Doctrine and before that the idea of News as a public service loss leader (and thereby non politicized. The Cronkite days for instance, but even people who came later and saw the degradation like Dan Rather or Peter Jennings, who grew up working for the old way broadcast news was done and saw how things have fallen so far) the creation of the 24 hour news cycle, along with a fuckload of other issues politically and otherwise (AM Radio shit like Rush Limbaugh etc), contributed to this stuff in a major way. It was an intentional exploitation on behalf of the Murdoch media empire, Sinclair (owning a ton of local affiliates) and way more.
Much like how Facebook and Twitter were designed for "engagement" over "truth" or "sane discourse", the same was true of Fox News. Sure exposing anyone to it was an issue, but the issues of NPR educated people having brain degeneration of one kind or another that lead to a growing amygdala and constant fear about the world (that's ontop of the fear about growing older and the US issue of basically flushing people away to live the rest of their lives in minimum support care homes , if that) can turn people who were once not as fucked, into slavering drones ready to pick up Fox's message (or Trump, or Alex Jones or anything else) tailor made for them at the best of time and now totally susceptible with brain damage.
For a vidya comparison, its a bit like how the gacha faggotry has grown for something that
>Americans would never go for that! Why would they ever pay for a fraction of a chance to get what they want when there are games that give you all the content up front or for standardized subscriptionsbut now it grows even faster because they gacha (and before that item mall, lootbox, mobile etc) types hired psychologists to best figure out how to figure out and hook the addicts, like a casino. The whales are often those with mental issues