The real indictment should be on sensationalism. Now, sure, I'm open to competing arguments, but I haven't seen the answer to the real question. What really brings out the most neurotic behaviors? And for me, it's clearly sensationalism.
I would argue, many people don't have anything else to look forward to. At least, that's what's self-evident through my own personal lens. I think of myself and how I'm kind of boring. But a few lies and a few more distortions can literally grow and fester until a boring person becomes sensational.
So picture all of the previous, but on a much larger scale. Where there are millions of distorted images floating around the stratosphere, those images can't be touched by human hands or altered beyond their perfect form. Once they reach that perfect form, they are cemented into the collective unconscious.