Controversy Triggers Legacy Coverage

A story can be ignored until a partisan heavyweight comments, at which point major outlets cover it as 'the controversy' rather than the underlying event. This cue‑driven gatekeeping incentivizes politicians to manufacture heat to get basic facts on air and deepens audience segmentation across media ecosystems. — If political cues, not intrinsic news value, decide coverage, the press becomes a reactive actor in polarization, warping what the public learns and when.