This doesn't really strike me as a cheap attempt to sway elections. Rather, it makes IMHO a pretty reasonable case for the idea that media - even independent publications - in the US are extremely polarized and biased when it comes to politics (albeit that's kinda beating a dead horse at this point).
With all this said, IMHO the style of the narrative also contributes to the ever increasing aggravation: why are people so focused on what can or cannot be construed as fodder for character assassination, when ideally an election is supposed to be about discussing the merits of different platforms. Investigative journalism certainly has its place, but in the context of the imminent elections and the political landscape, it would do a whole lot better to simply publish a down-to-earth for-dummies side-by-side comparison of candidate platforms, to dissuade pitchfork-induced action and encourage proper level-headed consideration by undecided voters.
Yes it's crazy how polarized popular U.S. media is. I'm from Germany but regularly check CNN and Foxnews since a year. I'm astounded how Foxnews is strictly positive about Trump and CNN is so positive about Democrats and Biden. (More in-depth magazines are more open though)
But being realistic, at least until the upcoming election is over they've reached a point of no return. 4 more years of Trump would exclude U.S. from international foreign politics.
With all this said, IMHO the style of the narrative also contributes to the ever increasing aggravation: why are people so focused on what can or cannot be construed as fodder for character assassination, when ideally an election is supposed to be about discussing the merits of different platforms. Investigative journalism certainly has its place, but in the context of the imminent elections and the political landscape, it would do a whole lot better to simply publish a down-to-earth for-dummies side-by-side comparison of candidate platforms, to dissuade pitchfork-induced action and encourage proper level-headed consideration by undecided voters.