The Political Media Dumpster Fire: How We Got Here and Why It’s Worse Than You Think

For decades, we’ve been operating under this quaint notion that the media is some kind of noble institution, a source of truth and objectivity in a world gone mad. We pictured grizzled reporters in fedoras, chasing down leads and speaking truth to power.

But let’s not fuck around the bush: that image was always more Hollywood than reality.

The political media has been a mess for a long time. It’s just that now, we’re seeing the consequences of that mess play out in real-time, on a scale that’s impossible to ignore. It’s like we’ve been living in a house with faulty wiring for years, and suddenly, someone decided to throw a rager and crank up all the appliances at once. The resulting electrical fire didn’t come out of fucking nowhere — it’s exposing the flaws that were there all along.

The Polarization Problem

So, what’s changed? Well, for starters, we’re dealing with a political landscape that’s more polarized than a pair of Ray-Bans. One major party has decided to take a hard right turn into crazytown, embracing conspiracy theories and rejecting basic democratic norms. And the media, bless their fucking hearts, have no idea how to handle it.