I would counter this by saying that Americans have never paid that much attention to hard news, especially political news. What has changed is that news networ

I would counter this by saying that Americans have never paid that much attention to hard news, especially political news. What has changed is that news networks (primarily Fox and CNN) realized this and pivoted into entertainment without giving up their branding as "news". Being upset about this is like being upset that people watch reality TV instead of documentaries. Yes, reality TV is theoretically "documentary" content, but it's not taking viewers away from Ken Burns.