They're buying control of narrative on issues they care about; the history of media is mostly that. Newspapers were kind of invented for that reason. Our ideas of ethics in journalism are fairly modern.

Indeed Edgar Allan Poe had a thing or two to say about newspapers. https://poestories.com/quotes.php (and scroll down a bit).

> “We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation — to make a point — than to further the cause of truth.”