I'm not sure how much of a pass we should give news media. Even before facebook they were still optimizing for click through rates and ad hits, which was enough

I'm not sure how much of a pass we should give news media. Even before facebook they were still optimizing for click through rates and ad hits, which was enough to give rise to "clickbait" titles and images. During the election I remember people were _glued_ to CNN, and at work people would say "can you believe what trump just said" and then argue endlessly. Even now, media articles still choose publish about mass shootings, the rise of Chinese hegemony, and other threatening lizard brain topics. "If it bleeds it leads" is still as true as it was back then.