I’m firmly in the extra cynical camp. That’s because it is the GOP (and their wealthy donors/foundations) who’ve been pushing certain narratives as part of their playbook for a long time:
GOP members/supporters tend to claim systems that work in their favor are biased in some way against them, as another way to cast themselves as victims. In addition to crying about what they called the “liberal media,” they also spent decades demonizing “liberal Ivy League colleges,” which trickled down into grade schools. That turned into charges of indoctrination, opposition to free speech (when they failed to promote hate speech on campuses), and claims that schools were hotbeds of DEI. How many college presidents and other leaders in education did they drag into hearings or pressure into resigning? I’ve lost count. 
There’s also a long history of GOP complaints against “liberal elites,” the “Left Coast,” protestors for “liberal causes,” and etc. Now that GOP supporters own so many media outlets, they’ve been able to push the message that all of those things they’ve described as liberal are a disaster, not part of “real America,” and the reason that average people can’t have nice things. They claim they’re justified in making anything they’ve demonized into targets to be controlled or eliminated in pursuit of their MAGA goals.
The GOP also embraces the phrase “fake news” and Bannon’s zone-flooding misinformation techniques, while engaging in this:
I’m not only looking forward to reform in government and business after a Harris/Walz victory, but also in the press. We need more independent and unbiased local news sources. I hope those billionaire media owners and political donors who tried very hard to mislead the public and destroy democracy for very little personal gain face real consequences. Heavily taxing them no matter where they live (or try to run) sounds like a good start.
