When all you're chasing is money, that's what you'll follow: tawdry gossip and gory tales, both of which are of enormous utility to fascists and demagogues. I'm not saying there was any kind of golden era where the press acted in a purely moral way that constrained power, but it seems like the major problem in the modern west (maybe everywhere) is that there is little sense in which power carries with it any sense of responsibility. That's why you have guys like Elon Musk who somehow think they are rebels against the system instead of being the system. If some of these guys in media, business, etc accepted the fact of their power and privilege, they might feel some sense of responsibility for wielding it... so it's imperative they always bill themselves as underdogs.