Propublica, WaPo: How Congress Stopped Working

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5. it's not so much the speed of the internet as the balkanization of the media

so many channels now. back when there were only 3 networks plus pbs, they all pretty much had to compete for the middle and strive to be genuinely reliable, factual, news reporting. they all had to compete for a healthy chunk of the entire market.

now that there are hundreds of channels and thousands of websites, they're free to tailor the news to whatever niche they want, which makes easy room for a foxnews that couldn't care less if liberals never watch. media outlets can be commercially fine while ignoring or even insulting large portions of the country because they no longer need such a large portion of the overall market.


of course the speed of the internet isn't irrelevant, it does contribute to the need to get a story out quickly, before it's been properly vetted. factual errors are far more common in initial reporting these days than they used to be. they'll correct the story eventually, but republicans certainly take advantage in order to get their lies out early and often....