This.

I agree. The HN community largely likes to criticize media but fundamentally they don’t understand it.

“The media is a business to generate income by grabbing attention”

This has always been true. Media has been sensationalist since it first started as word of mouth being spread by sailors and politicized as directed by government and business interests.

Once adopted by business interests, it has been forced to reach as many eyeballs as possible in order to be profitable.

Read the histories of journalism, Pulitzer, Hearst, the Spanish American War and other examples.

Freedom of the press is the most important thing and libel /defamation laws are what’s important.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_journalism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism

This situation is media is nothing new, but its drastically amplified by digital media platforms. When journalists could spent weeks or months on a major piece and publish it in a newspaper they didn't have constant, immediate feedback. At best they could look at paper sales and industry recognition.

Today journalists see very quickly what lands and what doesn't. They can even A/B test headlines to game attention. The shorter feedback loop can also easily lead to a focus on what one can publish today to get shares and likes, losing much of the integrity that may likely have been on the table when the work stands on its own and you can't immediately watch analytics as soon as its published.

When you guys are comparing a short data driven blog post by Pitchbook about falling VC funding to William Randolph Hearst tabloids starting the Spanish American War with racist hysteria, it seems like the problem isn’t the journalism but that you just are unhappy with the news being conveyed.

I didn't see anyone making that comparison, I'm honestly not quite sure where you were going with that strawman argument.

that's a strawman, no one is saying media was ever perfect, but the death of things like 60 minutes is evidence enough that media has drastically changed.

Especially when it's a blog post by the marketing team of a private company