The media have always cared about the middle class.
The middle class have been the ones buying their “papers” and the stuff advertised in the papers.
The middle class bought into the “thank god I’m not one of them lower class” writings and were taught to envy the upper crust.
With every $.25 paper the middle class bought, became another nail in the coffin. Jealousy and envy in black and white, right there between the sports page and the obituaries.
Today it’s all electronic, but nothing has changed, how can we sell people stuff they don’t need? What can we do to increase our market share? What does our audience want? “Orange Man Bad!!”, how many clicks are generated? While you are here look at the beautiful people on their new Igalaxy23!! Listen to the influencers spout off how we need to help everyone and it won’t cost you a dime!!!
And anymore outside of some local “politicians”, who may legitimately be trying to help, most are looking for a career where they don’t actually have to do anything.
How many of these yahoos have actually gotten a bill passed? Most it’s zero even after decades. But they need the middle class to keep funding them and their political aspirations. They need the shrinking middle class to continue to believe in their programs and ideology otherwise the house of cards falls down.