I believe previous generations' media had higher journalistic ideals than today's clickbait. They were by no means flawless back in the day (plenty of cases where they covered up things, like FDR's physical health). But they didn't see themselves as infotainment the way so much of cable news appears to, or nakedly pander to one side.

But I also don't imagine they had quite the same type of ruthless competition as today. So maybe we're all just products of our times.