ABSTRACT
The news media bear much of the responsibility for fostering and promoting toxic culture. New organizations regularly reward the most extreme and negative voices by giving them a bully pulpit from which to spread their bile. Overall, the media have become more of an attack dog than a watch dog. Now news organizations don’t just bark in warning that something is amiss; they go for the bite and try to inflict harm on those they attack. The media are becoming inexorably negative and neglect the positive side of politics and American life in general, which is not telling the full story.
