If, as an empirical fact of the matter, the opinions of citizens as a population are poorly formed and weakly held, and if they are subject to manipulation through ever-more-refined interventions informed by ever-improving scientifically tested social and cognitive psychology, then the idea of deliberative democracy by an informed citizenry

Anger and outrage has always played a motivating and instrumental role in political mobilization, but

populations that hold the opposite position on both questions.

a large majority of Americans do not have consistent and reliable ideological beliefs.

whether because they actually believe them factually or because claiming to believe them is part of what identifies them as Republicans.

Conservative talk shows aim at and capture a large and relatively homogenous block—white, Christian, and older.

As we will see, disorientation has been a central strategy of right-wing media since the early days of Rush Limbaugh’s emergence as a popular conservative radio talk show host and political commentator with millions of listeners.

would be five decades before his conspiracy-theory-laden, emotional, propagandist style would return to the airwaves, one year after the FCC finally repealed the fairness doctrine.

even core right-wing sites that do claim to follow journalistic norms, Fox News and the Daily Caller, do not in fact do so,