And I happen to think that is tendency we ought to suppress rather than embrace, don't you?
Personally supress, yes.
Institutionally supress, yes.
Thing is, the only way we can institutionally supress the tendency is for like minded people to run the media. Since there will always be somebody in the media who give attention to these stories, the like minded folks are forced to compete with them for ratings, circulation, etc.
A few bad eggs in the bunch damage the discourse for everyone.