I wonder if that has anything to do with the growth of the right.

No doubt plays a role, but I’d say it has more to do with the media’s obsession with getting paid. They are a business first and foremost, journalistic integrity be damned. They pushed stories they knew would get clicks without any regard to the facts or properly framing the issue.

Yeah pay walls don’t help but they didn’t cause the issues we’re seeing. Those that follow the actual fake news that conservatives push weren’t reading articles anyway, the paywall wasn’t what kept them from reading and researching properly.