Comment by gph

Agreed, but I think what you call straight journalism has largely turned into creating & hyping story lines, especially outlets like the Guardian and equivalent sources on the right. It's not as egregious and they're motivated by money/views/prestige instead of destabilization to fulfill geopolitical goals. But the media (especially the infotainment outlets) can be fairly destabilizing and unhealthy in their own right. Russia was exploiting an environment that our media had already established and prepped for them.