Prior to the creative use of “fake news” by the 45th president and almost announced GOP candidate for the 2024 election the above term, “tabloid journalism” came into existence on March 4, 1884.
A British drug company registered the word “tabloid” for a very small tablet it was marketing.
About the same time, large broadsheet newspapers were challenged by small format journals, and because the term “tabloid” had come to mean anything small, that’s what the newspapers were called.
Those “tabloids” often reported gossip instead of hard news which gave sloppy reporting the name “tabloid journalism” which then entered the news media arena.
Fox News and CNN are often referred to by said term by opposite ends of the political spectrum depending upon whether you are a Democrat/Republican or progressive/conservative!
Isn’t the First Amendment of the United States Constitution great?
(Excerpts from “The Little Book of Answers” – Author – Doug Lennox – (2003) – MJF Books – New York, NY 1001.)