For a while Fox news was an alternative, and people voted with their feet. Now Soros has control at Fox. Conservative talk radio is still an alternative, but it's not clear to me why the medium (MSM vs Talk Radio) should have polarized on ideology.
There's no money in it. Seriously. Starting salaries in journalism are awful . . . at least they were back when I was getting started in the early 1990s. Hell, my editor worked a second job at a mall selling jeans.
The only way you can hang in journalism as a young buck is with a trust fund, or indulgent parents.