Let's imagine populations: A, B, and C. Each population has their own distinct way of interpreting reality. It's not that their worldviews are completely different from each other, it's simply that the lens through which they view the world is shaped differently from the others due to a difference in priorities, culture and lived experience.

Now let's imagine 5 News Orgs: ABC, AC, A, B, C. These News Orgs are each aligned with the population letters reflected in their name. News Org: "A" for example will report on reality only through a lens that population "A" would find agreeable. While News Org "ABC" will report on reality through the combined lens of populations A, B and C, in essence looking at the issue from all angles.

News Org "ABC" would be considered "unbiased" despite the fact that it's still interpreting reality through a lens. This is fine though because the desire for "unbiased" news comes from a desire to understand an issue from all perspectives. Population B might look at the reports of News Org "ABC" so it can gain understanding on how Populations "A" and "C" are perceiving an event.

Suddenly population "A" says News Org "ABC" is harmful. It asserts Population A's lens is actually objective reality and that anything the contradicts it is false. It asserts "unbiased" news is actually a bad thing since it promotes things that disagree with "objective reality". News Org "ABC", buys this argument and becomes "Abc", still acting like it is "unbiased" but now inaccurately represents the positions of populations "B" and "C".

Gradually the media landscape shifts, it becomes just 4 News Orgs: "AA", "Ac", "A", "BB". Population "A" is now overrepresented across the media landscape, population "C" is represented but incorrectly and B is only represented by outlets that exaggerate its position on everything, over-correcting the issue.

Population C is aware there is an issue here but can extract some value by consuming content from multiple outlets and comparing things. Population A is no longer aware C exists and believes B is evil. Population B is also now unaware C exists and thinks A is evil.

Gradually the media landscape changes again, now the News Orgs are just "$ZZ", "AZ$", "A$" and "BBB$$".

- Population C is completely unrepresented and just looks at social media, it has no trust in any of the remaining News Orgs.

- Population B's exclusive outlet has become completely hysterical, and influenced by corporate interests taking advantage of the fact that Population B has limited options. Many in this population are enamored with it, many others have abandoned it entirely like with population C, but being less technically savvy, are now relying exclusively on local Facebook groups for their news.

- Population A, still believes it's lens is objective reality and has become accustomed to trusting all News Orgs other than "BBB$$". However, these organizations having long lost any sense of integrity, and have begun taking advantage of this blind trust by selectively reporting on things that align with the political interests of Party Z, believing that doing so will serve the greater good. Additionally, to make up for the fact that their audiences are now in decline, the remaining News Orgs are all selling their influence for extra cash. Some in Population A see the corporate influence in the remaining News Orgs but believe they can filter it out, however most trust them completely and fail to even filter out the corporate interest. Few if any are even aware of party Z's influence despite it being reported on "BBB$$".

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So I'll be upfront and say the above giant-wall-of-text-metapor is imperfect and something I just threw together and maybe got a little carried away with. To keep it terse I had to strip away some nuance.

Ultimately my goal here was to help highlight the difference between lies and a simple difference in worldview. The moment the dollar signs and Zs started getting into the mix of things was also the moment these orgs started burning the trust Population A had in them in exchange for influence over population A. I also think this results in a situation where someone in Population A, can no longer accurately assess what others in Population A actually believe.

I'd additionally argue that a proper "unbiased" News Org that attempts to represent the positions of all populations is less likely to end up in the situations described above, even if they are less popular. That multiple perspectives help keep bad actors in check like a natural pesticide, and the overly-partisan nature of contemporary news outlets doomed them into becoming what they now are since they have essentially abandoned their immune response.