The problem isn't the mainstream media, but the conservative media. This really is the heart of the matter:
Quote:"Here's the thing: Trump didn't come out of nowhere now," Obama said Thursday. "For years, Republican politicians and far-right media outlets have been pumping out all kinds of toxic, crazy stuff." Obama went through a litany of conspiracy theories that have been pervasive throughout his presidency. The movement doubting his birthplace. Fears he wanted to "steal everybody's guns." The idea he wanted to "declare martial law."Trump's effect on the conservative media - Business Insider
"I say all this," the president said, "because Donald Trump didn't start all this. Like he usually does, he just slapped his name on it, took credit for it, and promoted the heck out of it." The president had a point. Trump's rise was no accident; rather, it was a natural outgrowth of a growing and influential faction of conservative media that for years fed the Republican base a steady diet of fringe theories masqueraded as news. And Republicans allowed it to happen, as Obama noted.
By the beginning of the 2016 election cycle, a Republican hoping to secure office would all but need to take the hardline conservative position on every issue to avoid being characterized as a squishy moderate. If a Republican were to hold conservative positions on 90% of the issues, for instance, the conservative press would roast the candidate for the 10% on which there was disagreement. Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Perhaps more important, however, the conservative media industrial complex successfully managed over the years to lock the Republican Party away from access to its own base.
Those who consumed conservative media were taught not to trust politicians or, even worse, the mainstream media. As a result, party leaders were beholden to a handful of individuals who controlled the conservative media and, thus, held the keys to their voters. Elected officials and candidates seeking office dared not criticize the conservative media’s most powerful members, for fear of the wrath that would ensue if they did. The power the conservative press held allowed its members to decide who was accepted by the base and who wasn’t. True conservatives could be painted as unprincipled moderates, and, as in the case of Trump, unprincipled moderates could be painted as exactly what the base wanted.
The GOP "has appeased it, they've sucked up to it, they've been afraid of going up against it," said Charlie Sykes, an influential conservative radio host in Wisconsin. "I think that you have seen that played out this year. Has there been any willingness on the part of any mainstream conservative to call out this alt-right media? I'm not seeing it."
In this case, however, Ziegler said those "who were wrong" this year had "an enormous power to control the narrative." "Drudge, Breitbart, Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, [Laura] Ingraham — those people are completely invested in another false narrative to cover up the first false narrative," he said, adding, "and if there's one thing I have ever learned in life, it is far easier to dupe people than to convince them that they have been duped."