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Back before the internet, we were captive to newspapers, network TV, and radio for news. There were a few players that dominated that space, so they could invest the money into doing actual research and obtain the facts. We had long attention spans.
Nowadays, there's zero barriers to entry into the "news" space and people have short attention spans. To monetize news, you've got to generate clicks. Journalistic integrity has almost no relationship to how profitable the news organization is. On top of this, humans aren't evolved to be skeptical of things presented as news. Up until a hundred years ago when information was almost exclusively delivered by somebody saying something in person, there was no reason to believe the motivation was simply to capture your attention. There wasn't money involved in simply getting someone to listen.
My first instinct is to believe whatever is being presented to me. Only on 2nd thought do I begin to question things like motive, validity, reasonableness, etc.
... and the income caps on the checks are crap. People at higher ends of the income distribution are still very likely to be living paycheck to paycheck. It's a cultural thing, not a means thing, generally speaking.
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