Even though we are well into Gilded Age II, This kind of callous disregard of the truth is not new There’s an interesting little blurb on the PBS website about Yellow Journalism in the 1890’s [Gilded Age I].
Yellow journals like the New York Journal and the New York World
relied on sensationalist headlines to sell newspapers. William
Randolph Hearst understood that a war with Cuba would not only sell his
papers, but also move him into a position of national prominence. From
Cuba, Hearst’s star reporters wrote stories designed to tug at the
heartstrings of Americans. Horrific tales described the situation in
Cuba–female prisoners, executions, valiant rebels fighting, and
starving women and children figured in many of the stories that filled
the newspapers. But it was the sinking of the battleship Maine
in Havana Harbor that gave Hearst his big story–war. After the sinking
of the Maine, the Hearst newspapers, with no evidence, unequivocally
blamed the Spanish, and soon U.S. public opinion demanded intervention.
Today, historians point to the Spanish-American War as the first press-driven war. Although it may be an exaggeration to claim that Hearst and the
other yellow journalists started the war, it is fair to say that the
press fueled the public’s passion for war. Without sensational
headlines and stories about Cuban affairs, the mood for Cuban
intervention may have been very different. At the dawn of the twentieth
century, the United States emerged as a world power, and the U.S. press
proved its influence.
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html
So, plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. Currently, we at least have almost instantaneous access to information about events, which allows people who know where to look to ferret out the facts. On the other hand, lots of people are too lazy to do this and the lies tend to stick, especially when confirmation bias is a factor. What’s scary, when I think about it though, is the enormously greater damage the promulgation of lies and bullshit can accomplish today. In 1891, the world was on the verge of seeing seeing the first dreadnaught battleships [1905]. Today we have nuclear missiles. Weaponized anthrax, and god knows what else we’re not being told about.