What changed in the recent years is the amount of media time nutjobs on the internet get that everyone ignored back then. Nothing else. If you checked qanon groups before and after media attention, you will notice a steep increase in member count.

There is a dilemma. Should we report and amplify their voice or should we shut up about an "increasing" problem?

Some problems do disappear when you ignore them.

They don't need the mainstream media to spread their nonsense. It spreads on FB and Twitter quite well, and was the reason I stopped following (and unfriended) a lot of people over the past several years.

Hell, a few years ago my bartender tried to sell me on their nonsensical ideas.

Are you sure the media started reporting on these fake news before they became relevant? What makes you believe this?

I think the easiness with which algorithms + human psychology helps the propagation of fake news are well documented and widely understood.