Cable news is also entertainment-oriented. All media revolves around engagement, which now typically plays out through appeals to identity or maintaining heightened states of anxiety. Yes that includes your ABCs, CNNs, and MSNBCs.

I’ve noticed people who only watch “real news” tend to have very homogenous anxieties and information about the state of the world that is rarely the most pressing or complete view.

Yes, that is true. For example, if you just read mainstream media, you will not see how the meatpacking jobs have all gone to illegal immigrants in the last 20 years.

Or more realistically, the Alabama miner’s strike that has been going on for four months without a peep on he networks.