Matt wrote:

The other is that the self-consciousness journalists at legacy outlets have about accusations of liberal bias leads them to bend over backward to allow the leading conservative gripes of the day to dominate the news agenda. 

Non-legacy outlets with much smaller audience share at present, such as MSNBC--which I've been watching only in the last couple of weeks--push back hard, with facts for those open to them, on whatever right-wing media is seeking to make the topic du jour.  They don't just do that.  They report on real stuff going on that matters, like voter suppression in Georgia, which is becoming a thing with some visibility not because RW media wants to acknowledge or deal with it, but despite the fact that it wants nothing to do with any of that.  Those folks are among the Little Engines That Do--heroic fair play and democracy-promoting institutions in a country that looks to have nearly half of its people, and one of its two major political parties, ready to say goodbye to fair play and democracy. 

I observe other factors in play that Matt does not emphasize, or maybe just assumes: the ready and quick unanimity on what the conservative media distraction topic of the day is going to be, then blared out loudly from institutions with much larger combined reach than progressive outlets; and the ratings-friendly consequences of covering almost inherently divisive culture wars conflicts.  Conservative media as Matt noted aims deliberately to push culture war buttons and is good at it.  They have to be.  The last damn thing they want is discussion about the issues because they know they lose most of the time where issue stances end up being decisive.

RW coverage of such conflicts is largely about pressing people's buttons, and validating and amplifying strong, and almost always negative, feelings towards various others. 

The right-wing approach to manufacturing and covering culture wars conflicts has entertainment value to many who may be less inclined to see public affairs as something that is actually, notwithstanding all the nonsense, important, but see politics more as a circus, and so which side puts on the more fun show?