In the past most people just didn't read the news outside of the Front page, above the fold. But even when they did, journalists acted as the gatekeepers of information. So few people had access to publishing that integrity was very important. Lies and misinformation happened, but not like today.

The difference today is social media. The internet makes it possible to publish effortlessly. No editor, no peer reviews. Just type and click "post". When the public has that sort of power it will be misused.

This is why Trump, being a billionaire, hated regular editorials and became buddy buddy with National Enquirer in the 80s. Regular editorials like the NYT and Washington Post would never publish his attempts at rumors and lies. Their check process wasn't perfect but it easily caught blatant lies and smack talk like the ones he wanted published. But the NE being the type of editorial that publishes alien abductions, and celebrity cheating rumors, had no filter. That gave Trump a publishable voice to lie that he didn't have pre-internet. They were his pre-twitter.