[robgurley]

I think the effects of "fake" journalism would be mitigated somewhat if we didn't have laws against slander, libel, and false advertising.

The media-consuming public in the United States still believes that "if it is in print, it must be true" - they haven't been inoculated against falsehood like they would have been otherwise. Presumably, if there were no expectations of truth in print/media to be enforced by some magical (and actually sort-of non existent) federal authority, media outside the "trusted" sources would be automatically suspect unless reviewed by some other trusted third party.