Isn't money in media more of serious concern. What about billionaires co-opting media as their mouthpieces.
nytimes - carlos slim
slate/wapo.. - jeff bezos
salon - John Warnock
twitter - price al waleed
Ironically nytimes, for all their moral outrage, itself is funded by the money acquired through subversion of democracy in mexico , cheating mexicans out of billions of dollars every year. [1]
The history of American media is a history of very rich people growing, owning and acquiring media. They've always had this influence.
And yes it may be sub-optimal, but it is not new and therefore difficult to directly attribute recent changes to. In fact, it's somewhat arguable that the current predicament we find ourselves in is the result of making media less expensive to disseminate, not the opposite.
Our society and biology are poorly trained to reject incorrect information. So when small unethical actors begin to proliferate doing quick profit cycles on sympathetic populations, we see a lot of uptake for those ideas.
Want a great example that won't pick a big 2016 political fight? PETA. Despite being a rather ineffective activist group with a large incoherent message, they can inexpensively produce tons of populist media that helps keep them in people's minds and associate them (however wrongly) with helping animals.
'tell the press' emails are not crippling enough?
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign...
Poll after poll, taken after Sanders quit, showed Clinton beating Trump by wide margins.
How would that make things better? Not all sides deserve equal time, nor is there any requirement to present the 'other' side in a fair and accurate light. Having clearly stated up front biases is far better than biases hidden behind a veneer of faked impartiality and careful stage managed 'fairness'.
The Hearst family is one I'm familiar with and referring to above.
Even "educated" people here debate climate science with absolutely ridiculous claims. This is as good as it gets. That's the painful truth I've been trying to swallow.
People use information to make an educated vote? I missed that memo
Or to put it another way, I think politics has lurched right rather than the Post moving left. Do you have any particular stories in mind, though?
Just read that article, it does portray the version from the other party, but always allowing for a proper justification for Slim's position so that one might find it reasonable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/world/americas/mexicos-car...
If by "funded" you mean a rich dude in Mexico owns just 16% of the stock.
You are going to need to provide more than Trump Campaign taking points if you are going to accuse NYT of being Slim's mouthpiece.
Bloomberg - Michael Bloomberg