> the scandals had planetary coverage, therefore I would still expect to see some kind of impact That would assume that news is accurately reporting reality. N

> the scandals had planetary coverage, therefore I would still expect to see some kind of impact That would assume that news is accurately reporting reality. News is a business as well, you create issues, pile on, and gather ad impressions. There's definitely built-in pressure to exaggerate as a result. Some of the most egregious is attributing short-term market trends with specific political issues (as opposed to noise or changes market fundamentals). The darker side is when how news companies can shape public perception. In this case, the business models of the news are under attack by content aggregators like facebook and google.