Papers in the late 1700s and early 1800s were certainly full of virulent and violent rhetoric. "Yellow journalism" was coined later the same century, and it was common for people to get all their news only from the party rags. It's been my observation that people tend to think "good journalism" came with the era of broadcast media, where the state (in the US) was able to acquire a previously unprecedented level of control over media that everyone consumed. This created a bubble for some people that consumed mainly this media, especially as their social connections weakened, but stuff like the Fairness Doctrine did not entail actually displaying much in the way of really controversial views, which continued to propagate outside the channels of broadcast media. This was the echo chamber, and a lot of people are still in it; all it did was mandate that you receive the two anodyne approved opinions. It's just that today, rather than say, reflexive anticommunism, there are new sacred cows that cannot be questioned. This echo chamber is sustained not by anonymous Twitter posters and YouTube conspiracy cranks, but by the chattering and political classes generally, and they really, really hate contrary political values and are intent on using the worst examples to silence all.

But also concomitant with the reign of broadcast media was, for most people in the US, good times, both socially, psychologically, and financially. Nevertheless the leading edges of the current crises were present, and you had people like Ellul influencing the Unabomber.