Currently reading through Jacques Ellul's *Propaganda* and it is illuminating! He explains how this works. The constant stream of new news, marching through, one topic this week, another one next, never allowing the consumer to settle in and think about one thing before the next one is presented-- this is a technique that actively prevents critical thinking, and the normal consumer of news literally cannot remember any news from as long as... a whole two months ago. It's gone. The news can contradict itself all it wants, every item erases the last one.