Perhaps I am more optimistic than you but I don't think our news media has degraded to crackhead level yet,
You're right.
CrAcKhEaDs are operating with less-than-optimal cognition and reasoning. They often lack the mens rhea to understand what they are doing -- right, wrong or indifferent.
The Main Stream Media is just pure evil, spouting off propaganda, lies, misinformation, fake news and opinions as if it's real news. CNN is the biggest offender, and all the others vie for a close second.
CNN admits that's what they have been doing, now that they have a new Captain at the wheel:
The new president of CNN is expected to bring back the cable news giant’s “hard news”
emphasis while steering away from opinion and commentary, according to a report.
Chris Licht, the CBS executive who was lured away from the network and hired to replace
Jeff Zucker as the new boss at CNN, believes that the network made a mistake by having
its on-air talent freely give their opinions during news segments.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/01/heres-what-cnns-new-boss-has-in-store-for-the-cable-network/The worst part is while CNN was "fact-checking" FOX News, Trump and anyone else who called out their fake news tactics, almost nobody was fact-checking CNN as they pretended to report the news instead of being upfront that most of their reports were opinion, commentary and unverified information.
Do I think they will turn their sinking ship around and make the needed repairs? Doubtful. It's difficult and time-consuming to change a massive corporation's culture after decades of decline. If the CEO does what CEOs do, he'll be torn between fixing the product and making money off their relatively few remaining loyal customers.