I think there'll always be news media because it's one of the most popular entertainment venue's around.
I remember back in the pre-cable days when there were 3 networks and an independent station or two in each market the FCC required each network to provide news programing as a public service and each one provided a 15 minute or so national newscast each evening and local markets did the same for local news. These newscasts were loss leaders for the networks and individual stations so they didn't get much airtime. That changed in the 60's and 70's when newscasts of all stripes became profit centers with expanded coverage and an advertisement every 5 minutes or so. People liked it, especially when their trusted newsreaders began offering commentary, the likes of which were previously limited to opinion pages in newspapers. Commentary and opinion became so popular that it pretty much took over news operations and nobody did it as well as upstart cable news operations once CNN became the first full-time news network and other operators discovered there was money to be made without having to provide expensive programming.
I can't speak for "his minions", even though I've been accused here of being one, because I usually get my slanted news from MSNBC, a favorite of "his arch-nemeses" along with a few newspapers and magazines.
As for how he got nominated, it was well reported several years ago that he received a disproportionate amount of media coverage by cable and network news, vastly more than any other candidate, even though most of it was mocking, but it resulted in him being an almost immediate front-runner, strangely enough.
I've read several articles in the past week or so about an MSNBC producer named Ariana Pekary and her open letter criticizing commercial news operations and their penchant for only providing opinion/news that fit their target demographic's wishes (you may have to search for that since most businesses won't publish anything critical of themselves). But that's what a business does, give it's customers what they want. I'm not sure where we can get "factual and legitimate news" these days. I think you have to consume it from various sources and keep the wheat and throw away the chaff, and there's an awful lot of chaff.