The agenda of broadcast and print media has always remained the same - to sell more advertising at a better price.
This requires broadcast and print media to create content which brings in the viewers/readers. Each company in their own way, often targeting a different audience segment.
Advertisers pay more for younger viewers so content which targets an elderly audience, like the 73 year old mean-age of Bill O'Reilly viewers, makes up a small minority of the total entertainment content.
PBS stations are the largest content provider for non-angry older Americans who have saved well for their retirement. It's a different target audience from Fox News, so they rely less on advertising and more on contributions from their elderly viewers.
Even David Koch who funds candidates who are very dismissive of science, has provided millions of Dollars of donations to the Nova science program on PBS, broadcasting actual documented science. Their Dad was an oil chemist and one thing all people in the oil business know is you can't find oil and gas believing the world was created by God 6,500 years ago or similar notions.
We've run out of other people's Social Security taxes needed to subsidize our low income tax rates.
