There was. But the Internet makes it so much easier to deliver it with bad faith in industrial quantities, using manipulative sources who are not who they prete

There was. But the Internet makes it so much easier to deliver it with bad faith in industrial quantities, using manipulative sources who are not who they pretend to be. The impersonation can be more damaging than the content, because it's a variety of toxic mental pollution - a form of betrayal - that lowers the SNR of the entire Internet.