We are becoming a nation of skeptics, and it’s at an all-time level.”It wasn't until the 60s when television replaced newspapers as the primary source of information for most people, especially younger people, that Americans were lulled into the sort of trance that most loyal democrats are still in.
IMHO the roots of the problem go back a lot further than that. All the way back to the telegraph, in fact. Morse demo’ed the Baltimore-Washington telegraph in 1844, and the foundation of the Associated Press began before 1850. And there are of course other wire services - but “competitive or not,” wire services always tend to homogenize journalism.Increasing skepticism isn't the problem, not even a problem. The amazing lack of skepticism is the problem.People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)Plainly, the AP “wire” is a virtual meeting of all major journalism outlets - one which does not end at all, let alone ending before generating “a conspiracy against the public.”
The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing.Here Adam Smith not only asserts your thesis that skepticism is in short supply, he tells us what journalists’ motives are - and thus what “a conspiracy against the public” by journalists would promote. See my tagline . . .The man whom we believe is necessarily, in the things concerning which we believe him, our leader and director, and we look up to him with a certain degree of esteem and respect. But as from admiring other people we come to wish to be admired ourselves; so from being led and directed by other people we learn to wish to become ourselves leaders and directors . . .
The desire of being believed, the desire of persuading, of leading and directing other people, seems to be one of the strongest of all our natural desires. - Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
After WWII, though, everyone and everything focused on eliminating regional cohesion and regional markets turning the US into a single nearly monolithic audience. Regionalism was nearly dead when the Dixiecrat movement tried to rebuild at least a part and failed.
That's what the Boomers grew up in, a nation where massive effort was being put into totally destroying regionalism and local interests whether it was through cookie cutter news at six or ever more common national chains like K-mart and McDonalds replacing both Mom & Pop business and regional chain stores.
By the eighties, same pizza, same hamburger, and same clothes for sale in Anchorage, Beloxi, Casper, Dodge City, etc. Nothing to disturb the self-image Boomers had drummed into them to convince them they were all part of the same happy, wonderful, Californication that everyone else was a part of. Cookie cutter hippies gave way to cookie cutter yuppies gave way to the next nationally advertised self-image available at any magazine rack and on every television channel 24/7.
The only skepticism left was at the occasional 'Bridge Too Far' ad when the lady of the house responded negatively because she knew that no matter which swimsuit she chose she wasn't going to weigh twenty pounds less and be walking a leopard down the beach in Jamaica any time no matter what she wore.