The media is as capitalistic as it gets, the "if it bleeds it leads" mindset means that the controversy is going to be put on TV. Take a look at this Doug Wilson guy, he has less than 20k followers, but because he texted with Hegseth he gets platformed and stories written about him by even a group who is better than most, NPR, saying "He's becoming more mainstream" No he's not, he would be a fringe lunatic that nobody would take seriously if you didn't write about him. Having worked in media at NBC in DC as my very first foray in the real world doing a internship and then part time job, the stuff that gets eyeballs is the stuff that pays the bills. It's the same with these "influencesers" so much garbage on youtube these days that has no value at all but because it has people complaining about nonsense it gets clicks. At some level we have ourselves to blame. There is real psychological thing where we watch this stuff because we perceive it as a threat and we want to protect ourselves, and the more views and more clicks these things get because we are stuck in a doomscrolling stupor the more it feeds that system. And I say that believing Trump is a full on threat to our Democratic Republic.