Two things. In the old days we had news. The the Fairness Doctrine was gotten rid of by right wing operatives and new we have news and entertainment. Coupled with the rise of the internet we no longer have a common source of the truth. What people think of as news now is actually some type of spin of events 90% of people don’t care about. CNN and Fox News and NY Times need to sell ads to stay in business because nobody is paying for their services anymore. To get clicks and eyeballs things have to become more and more outrageous. Hence the rise of Trump and why fake news can’t stop talking about him. In the old days he would’ve been ignored and he would’ve drifted off to another scam. Get used to more of this.

The other thing is that when we take politics out of it and people are asked what their views on certain things are Americans are much more aligned than they realize. But the fake news organizations want to drum up this fake division between the two sides to have even more drama