You gotta read this column by Bernard Goldberg in townhall.com yesterday (https://townhall.com/columnists/bernardgoldberg/2018/05/22/fake-news–the-mainstream-media-version-n2482836).
Working as a newsman at CBS News in the 1980s, Goldberg recalls how his colleagues cooked up deeply bogus stories about “the homeless” (President Reagan’s fault: the homeless magically disappear when a Democrat is in the White House) and “the heterosexual AIDS epidemic.”
They knew they were lying, knew they were filling their broadcasts with purposeful misinformation. But it was all in a good cause! And that excuses everything. You don’t have to tell the truth, if lies will lead the public in the right direction. Sorta like scientists lying about Climbit Change to get the public to behave as the scientists think they should. If it brings about good results, it doesn’t have to be true.
The cost? In the long run, no one believes anybody. Because they’re sure that everybody’s lying.