Why does everyone feel overwhelmed by information? Why does it feel impossible to trust what passes through our streams? We tend to blame individual publications, specific platforms, or bad actors. The real answer has less to do with any single media entity and more with structural changes in the information ecosystem. I started my "information" life typing copy on an ill-tempered Remington.
In the Trump era, the real center of gravity on the American right has never been the Republican Party. It has been the people who talk to the Republican base every daythe broadcasters, the livestreamers, the podcasters, the influencers. They form the ecosystem that shapes belief, defines enemies, and decides who is ascendant or finished. And that is why the most significant political story unfolding right now isn't happening on Capitol Hill or inside the White House.
Why did "protesters" storm the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021? Because they believed something demonstrably false: that the election had been "stolen." Why did a majority of Americans vote for the would-be dictator who promoted this lie three years later? At least in part, again, because many of them believed obviously false things: e.g., that the economy was worse than it was; that crime was more widespread, trans athletes more numerous, and migrants more violent.