These days we hear a lot about the epidemic of "fake news". It's our modern day McCarthyism, and it's frequently used by our benevolent leader Donald Trump to talk about sources he doesn't agree with. Fake news is all around us, on both sides, and it's spreading lies, hatred, and dishonesty through our great nation. If only someone would string up these dirty lying journalists to let people know disagreeing misinformation won't be tolerated. I'm sure this all sounds great, but here's the thing; you don't hate "fake news," no, you love it, in fact, you can't get enough of it.
American's don't really want purely factual reports, this much is very clear. Everytime a relatively unbiased news source tries to grow, it ends up dying. Why? Because we don't want the facts, the facts are boring, the facts are hard to understand. We want someone to tell us what happened, and how to feel about it, we want to be entertained. A factual news source dies because it can't compete with the sensationalist news that dominates mainstream media, just look at the death of Al Jazeera America.
Sensationalism appears on both sides (well mostly on the conservative side), but its prevalence is a symptom of the internet era. Back when the majority of news was on newspaper or radio there was a larger barrier to entry for the industry. You had to afford writers, editors, and printing/broadcasting fees associated with getting your news out. Nowadays nearly anyone can publish an opinion or news article and it will be as accessible as any major news source. This meant there was a larger focus on headlines that would capture your attention in order to compete with the several thousands of news sources. Sensationalism is the only logical step if you want to compete in the entertainment industry of news media.
The idea of a purely factual news source is one of myth, really. We'd like to believe there is a truth and that it is easily communicable, but this is often not the case. Events happen in this world and we can't always fully understand or know what happened. A journalist takes an event and describes what happened in order to form a story around an event. This story is vulnerable to what facts are available and our own perspectives on how events are related to each other. To say you want a purely factual source is to say you want a source that knows what happened, but it's often the case that no one really knows what's going on.
Fake news does exist, and it's true that most people don't trust mainstream news sources, but you've got to ask yourself what you really want in a news source. You want a source that aligns with what you already believe because we want to be assured that we are already right. This tendency makes us blind to what else is happening and molds our perception of the world. When it gets down to it, your sources like CNN and NPR are generally unbiased, despite their "left-leaning." So look around a little bit, because if you're only getting news from one place, you've probably drunk the kool-aide.
