Republicans have only themselves to blame. They repealed the FCC Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and the personal attack and political editorial rules in 2000, all so they could go after their political opponents with impunity.
The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine did a lot of damage to political discourse, but it was nothing compared to Citizens United. That Supreme Court decision not only gave the right of free speech to corporations with no legal requirement to disclose their funding, but it also nullified the Federal Election Commission rules about broadcasting attack ads within a certain period of time before federal elections and primaries.
Citizens United is a right-wing political group formed in 1988 to produce attack ads and “documentaries” attacking their political opponents. They made a documentary length attack ad about Hilary Clinton that they wanted to air in 2008, which was an election year, and Clinton had announced her candidacy in 2007.
The Citizens United group knew that they wouldn’t be able to show their “documentary”, so they sued the FEC on the grounds that the rules were a violation of the free speech rights of corporations, a concept that had previously only been applicable to actual human individuals. And the conservative Supreme Court majority, made up of proud Constitutionalists agreed.
FYI, corporations do not appear in the Constitution, and Jefferson had this to say:
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
And the final turd on top of the shit sandwich Trump will be eating soon: the President of Citizens United resigned in 2016…to become Trump’s deputy campaign manager.