Precisely. And you can see this in the news reporting as well.

When Fox started out doing news, they were a simple, right of center news outlet; O’Reilly and Hannity were actually watchable back then.

Over the years, they moved to more and more of a hyperbolic, bomb-throwing rhetorical posture, to the point that a cottage industry of Fox-watchers appeared (Media Matters) to refute them, the coup de grace coming when the Obama administration actually tried to ban them from certain White House reporting functions.

Since then, the broader media seems to have decided “Well, if you can’t beat them, join them” with first MSNBC then CNN now engaging in equivalent rhetorical bomb-throwing; there seems to be no end to the American appetite for “hating the other side”. Even The View, which was founded for the purpose of “girl talk” about a host of issues (not just politics) has joined the political hyperbole wars.

Next step will probably be Food Channel shows pitting politically conservative chefs against politically liberal ones. :-)