Here's the setup: the right-wing media disseminate all sorts of mind-numbing, twisted, overzealous neo-fascist claptrap. The liberal media debunk it. The right-wingers respond by calling the liberal media liars and conspirators against the truth.
The extremely wealthy conservatives fund more noise-making from the right-wing media; the liberal media, funded as they are by about ONE wealthy patron, are pigeon-holed by the right-wingers because, well, that one wealthy patron is a NAZI! He's a FASCIST! He's the DEVIL! Simply because he's not falling in line with the other 99% of billionaires who have joined the Tea Party, or consciously selected apoliticism.
And the vast majority of barely-thinking, give-us-our-convenience-and-conformity ignorantsia sit in silent, blinkered judgment upon it all, reasoning to themselves, "It's all about the same. It's all about the same. Both sides are equally right; both sides are equally wrong."
It's no wonder progressives can't get a foothold on the national dialogue.