[Miredly]

I'm sorry, but your example falls a little flat when you look at how Fox News became the lynchpin of the shit-show the US is sinking in to right now.

People adapted to it, sure- but that's the problem.

[danShumway]

Do we have evidence that Fox News on the television is significantly more disruptive than, say, radio programs[0] were before it?

0: https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/86-man-of-the-people

[Spivak]

If a single TV station had the power you describe you would think they might be a little more successful at using it by now. Not saying they have no effect, but if the station never existed I don't think our history would be drastically different.

[gowld]

What's make you think they are unsuccessful?

Sure, a TV station can't annoint a President of whatever. The power to destroy is a weaker power than the power to create, but is still an immense power.

Rupert Murdoch's lifelong business philosophy is that all information gatekeepers should be destroyed, so that no one's opinion (or facts) are elevated over any other's. It's pure libertarian-democracy of ideas that throws the baby (education and critical thinking) out with the bathwater (suppression of outsider voices). The modern "Internet of Trolls" is the culmination of his philosophy.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2011/jul/18/reb...