I originally thought TC was like a tabloid. Now, after thinking about it, I've come to a conclusion that there's a better analogy: it's like cable news.
The things you see on cable news (e.g., CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc.) are, most of the time, not really "news". They're trumped-up soundbyte stories which are "broken" at times calculated to keep eyeballs on the screen. The information reported is often wrong and corrections are rarely made. Sensationalism and reporting any controversy one can find, no matter how minor, is the order of the day. Popular stories/subjects, when discovered, are turned into repeating segments to milk them for all they're worth.
And, of course, people who rely on cable news outlets for actual news will come away fairly poorly informed on the state of the world.
But all of the above apply equally well to TC. It's just another big American infotainment outlet, working to make money off something-that-maybe-kinda-looks-like-news.
Which is why I don't read TC, and feel frustration with people who (as on this site) obsess about it and constantly link to it. Mentally, I class such people with folks in real life who want to tell me all about the latest thing they heard on Fox News.