Asking Dan Rather why the media makes up stories is like asking Willie Sutton why bank robbers rob banks.
That’s just the trouble - you are so cynical about American society that your ability to be accurate and fair is negligible. In fact, the fact that you claim to be objective - not to be trying to be objective, a laudable ambition if true - simply proves that you actually are not even trying to be objective. You simply make the claim, and then print whatever fact or fiction you find congenial to your own interests.You know perfectly well that you are negative; “If it bleeds it leads” is Journalism 101. But it is so not because negativity is objectivity, but rather because bad news sells newspapers. To claim to be objective while knowingly being negative is to claim that negativity is objectivity. But “the conceit that negativity is objectivity” is a perfect definition of cynicism.
Thus cynicism is baked into the journalistic cake. But nobody can be cynical about everything; if “A” and “B” are opposites and you are cynical about “A,” you cannot but be naive (at best) toward “B.” Journalism is cynical about society; about government, journalism is at best naive. Which is a precise description of socialism. And whether you call socialism “liberalism” or “progressivism” or whatever expression you may concoct, journalism naturally defaults to pro-socialist propaganda.
And whatever rebuts socialist propaganda, be it never so novel, never so interesting, never so important - just doesn’t suit your idea of “news.”