We analyze the consequences of a monopolistic, non-partisan, profit-maximizing media on policy divergence. The media undertakes costly coverage that may reveal the quality of an office-seeking political challenger only if quality-conscious voters pay an access fee. Voters are ideologically...

In an election over two policies, public mood swings whereby voters move ideologically towards a particular policy should never hurt its electoral performance. We find that this fundamental monotonicity property of preference aggregation cannot be guaranteed in the presence of a commercial...

Can public mood swings that make all voters undergo an ideological shift towards a policy, hurt the electoral performance of that policy? The answer depends interestingly on the operations of an apolitical, viewership-maximizing dominant media. The media chooses news quality about fundamental...