I just don't agree with this: "Until Trump came along, neither state nor private donors tried to lean on media organizations to influence their content—at least not to any significant degree.". What about, for example, Fox News, and I am sure other media orgs were and are conditioned by their billionaire owners regularly, unfortunately.
Tankies love taking authoritarians at their word. Of course, they only apply skepticism to pro-western opinions.
https://gnet-research.org/2023/10/02/tankies-a-data-driven-understanding-of-left-wing-extremists-on-social-media/
I just don't agree with this: "Until Trump came along, neither state nor private donors tried to lean on media organizations to influence their content—at least not to any significant degree.". What about, for example, Fox News, and I am sure other media orgs were and are conditioned by their billionaire owners regularly, unfortunately.