Yup, creative writing.
Yup, creative writing.
The first half of your comment provides a sufficient reason why something resembling journalism stays alive: readers want these stories.
What does this have to do with democracy, and what's the causal chain that goes from democracy (or the zombie of democracy, I guess) to keeping journalism in suspended animation?
Newspapers (and employers in general) can now do similar filtering, if they want to, thanks to social media. If you're not committed to pushing a desired narrative, and willing to spin anything to fit it, then you're not getting hired. And given the state of society today, it's unclear if a newspaper with objective or diverse reporting would be able to compete against the current batch of confirmation bias delivery services.