The 1976 epic film “Network” nailed the future of tv news with Howard Beale doing his best Bill O’Reilly pre-impression, psychics, pollsters, gossip reporters and “edgy” features supporting things like communist-front terror groups vaulting the fictional “UBS” into the top of news ratings.
If you haven’t watched it in awhile, do yourself a favor and cue it up again. It’s truly a mirror into what tv news has become.
Sidney Lumet said that he and Paddy Chayefsky didn’t consider “Network” to be futuristic; they considered it to be reportage of the times in which they were living.