I'd typically be the first person to call you out on distracting from the core point, but in this case I agree wholeheartedly; I don't think you fall prey to the typical anti-patterns of whataboutism in that the broader context of American regulation and our prioritization of goals is very relevant to this discussion.

The entire "Fake news" epidemic seems absurd to me. (and frankly, an intentional distraction) Tabloids have been around literally my entire life. The only difference now is that people apparently can no longer distinguish them from fact. (Not to mention as far back as our first presidents, you can find newspaper articles trumpeting that e.g. Jefferson was in a pact with Satan and his alcoholism would overturn the country. Somehow America prevailed then; what is different now.)

Meanwhile, we have public schools in some states that can't afford more than 4 days a week, politicians for whom lying is absolutely a pathology with no one holding them accountable, and a literacy/numeracy rate far below many other first world countries.

I have many thoughts on why this comes to pass but the cynic in me is focused heavily on that the incentives in the current system (for the current power-players at least) do not align with spending resources to have a highly educated population en-masse.