Libertarian (?) scholar Richard Hanania, weighs in on a whole lot about the current shitshow of political media in a brilliant essay titled “Liberals Read, Conservatives Watch TV“. Some choice clips:

“In the age of cable news and the internet, the main media sources on the left and right have each engaged in a mass mobilization campaign. Conservative media perfecting the ‘infotainment’ genre of news commentary brought people into politics that a generation earlier would’ve paid more attention to professional wrestling or monster truck rallies instead. Liberalism has captured a combination of an overeducated class with more desire for status than intellectual curiosity along with mentally ill individuals who in the 1990s might have joined some apolitical subculture instead of becoming passionate about race and gender issues. While during the Clinton era the split between the TV watchers and readers alongside the right-left axis was already there, it has become much more extreme. This has been referred to by political scientists as ‘increasing education polarization,’ a phrase that I don’t think captures the most interesting aspects of what is going on…”

“…One thing I noticed a while ago is that, while I read a lot of different websites, only conservative sites tended to slow down my computer with spam. And a lot of it is simply fraudulent, stuff like ‘check out Ben Carson’s secret brain pills.’ My theory as to why is that conservatives are trying to squeeze every penny out of their audience, while liberals also care about maintaining credibility with smart people and signaling that they run serious websites. Moreover, the alternative to ads is making people pay for a subscription, something liberals are more likely to do. I just went to the Washington Examiner and clicked a random article, and got this, only after clicking through a pop-up that took up the whole screen.”