Here is an "old guys" take on it
"Back in the day"...........", lol, we had Network News, ABC, CBS and NBC , and the news divisions ALWAYS lost money
They wouldn't accept commercials from national advertisers, just local advertisers usually, and always no strings attached
We had guys like Walter Cronkite, often said to be "the most trusted man in America"
Mike Wallace and Dan Rather were also up there with the trust factor
I remember my dad and grandfathers not always liking what Walter had to say, but they never doubted what he said
My dad and his father were from the South, and were racists, not overt, but certainly had things to say about Walter's reporting about Civil Rights issues in the South, being one sided............in other words FAIR, lol
60 Minutes was going to do the Pinto Story, the exploding gas tank thing
Ford was the main advertiser/sponsor for 60 minutes, Ford said if you run that story we walk
Decisions was made to run it, "we will find another sponsor"
Ford backed down
Point being, most people now find the news people that report the news closest to their point of view, not unbias, bias for sure
I am sure there are news reporters that report the news in a fair and impartial way, but they do NOT get alot of viewers
People like confirmation that their skewed point of view is valid, they do not want to see or hear anything that would cause them to question their point of view, way to insecure, the "my way or the highway" thing
The polarization doesn't COME FROM the media, the main news media is just a business now, it wants viewers, ratings are ALL, so they follow what the viewers want, what WE want, so yes, polarized news to get those viewers "on that side"
It's no longer the "News hour with Walter Cronkite" its the "News Show
staring Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper"
So a show like Seinfeld or Breaking Bad, entertainment
Because we have so many choices for news we find the one(s) that caters to our insecurity, and then we believe what they report, human nature
Was it the Battle of Little Bighorn, or the Massacre at Little Bighorn, lol, same news event different slant
I don't think we can, or should, blame the media for our insecurity
The Movie "Network"(1976) touched on this,
Howard Beale speech
We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore.
We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’
We just want to see and hear what we already believe to be true, "just leave us alone", no other points of view, lol