I have theories! Up until December of 1987 there was a federal law called the fairness doctrine. If I went on the airwaves (TV or Radio) saying President RBW eats babies. RBW was guaranteed equal time to rebut the nasty rumor. That great and glorious defender of freedom R. Reagan got rid of the fairness doctrine opening the door for Rush Lamebrain and all of his colleagues to lie and lie and lie. And no one could rebut them with their audience. You could go on someone else show and try to tell your side of the story, but you couldn't get to the dittoheads. At about the same time, the internet really took off and of course any one could start posting anything they wanted there too. No matter how stupid.
I used to be a free speech absolutest after all no matter how crazy the guy on the street corner passing out flyers is, there's a limit to how many people he can convince, and sane people can undo his damage. Well crazy got a great big megaphone to yell through and the boomers were raised on media that you could pretty much trust. Sure the president could and did occasionally lie to people, but there was a limit to what random crazies could do. So the whole Greatest and Boomer cohorts were primed to drink in crazy like it was their job. And unless we get a new Fairness Doctrine we won't be able to bring them back. The good thing is, they are by definition gullible, and therefore, we may be able to deprogram them, but not going to lie. I think it'll be tough because who among us has that kind of power and who really knows the truth?
Were there wackados on the TV machine? Yes, but no matter what was said about someone or something any FCC licensed station had to present opposing views and you'd see a whackjob pop up there but he didn't get to rule the airwaves. Johnny Carson had a recurring bit about the phenomenon. May I introduce Floyd R Turbo with an opposing view. Imagine Faux News having to put a sane person on the air every time one of their crazies spoke!