The media has never only communicated fair and factual information, but the biases of previous eras were less blatant. Chomsky detailed a lot of these cases whe

The media has never only communicated fair and factual information, but the biases of previous eras were less blatant. Chomsky detailed a lot of these cases where very similar cases of Soviet actions were covered much more harshly than comparable or even worse actions done by Americans or American allies. This is normal stuff, but it felt like this bias was done largely because American journalists were American and naturally, this is how many saw the world. We now have this divide in America where the difference between the journalist class and wide swaths of America are as wide as the gap between the Soviets and cold-war era journalists. So we have this strong bias whereby don't want to report anything that in any way legitimizes the viewpoints of the 'bad people' (e.g., anyone with viewpoints deemed to be 'populist), even if, particularly if those viewpoints are actually popular. The problem is if they make up fairy tales about how the Taliban are a bunch of sweethearts and freedom fighters during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, how would US citizens of the 1980s know? On the other hand, if they massage the truth about something that happened down the street, citizens are bound to notice and naturally, lose all faith in their reporting.