General Discussion

But you’re right, he fails to make the connection explicit. He charts the start of the Trump Reaction to the aftermath of the financial crisis, which — if you look at a study that was recently posted on DU — coincides with Fox News’ sudden ascent to national influence. (The network was founded in the 90s but did not gain much of a foothold with the American public until about 2009.)

Another weak point of the article, imo, is that it dismisses local news as a lost cause. It cannot be if we are to preserve self-government.

It’s true, there is a bias in the piece toward overestimating the importance of a small group of elite national outlets and Musk. But the right-wing media you mention have been around for awhile, so the question is, when and why did they suddenly gain so much traction?

To me, the answer is: when parts of the country really hollowed out, and when local news outlets began dying off.