Twenty years ago Harvard graduate students Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro began developing the ideas that would form a series of foundational papers on the topic. In a 2006 paper, “Media Bias and Reputation,” they outlined the central dynamic on a theoretical level: If consumers perceive news to be of higher quality when it confirms what they already believe to be true, news companies will have an incentive to fit their coverage to their viewers’ pre-existing worldviews.

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With several papers declining to make presidential endorsements this year, one hopes there’s a future for unifying, objective sources of news. My hunch is that it will get worse before it gets better. I am skeptical that there is enough demand for objectivity and believe there are powerful economic forces pushing media outlets to give audiences the red meat they desire. If we truly want less-biased media, we need to stop consuming the unhealthy options on offer. The market will give us what we want.