Years ago when Lyndon Johnson was running for state office in Texas he wasn't doing very well in polls. He told his campaign manager to start a rumor that his opponent was having an affair. His campaign manager knew it wasn't true and said they couldn't prove it. It doesn't matter, said Johnson, we only need to get him to deny it. And there is the essence of political hit jobs and manipulation of the media for political gain. It is a dirty business.
I once considered running for Sheriff. I talked to a long tenured and successful Sheriff and asked for his advice. He told me to avoid negative campaigning because voters hate it but the media lives for it. That's it in a nutshell.
As an aside, Johnson was a skunk of the first order. There were reports of operatives stuffing ballot boxes in Texas state elections early in his career but the governor at the time ordered the Texas Rangers not to investigate. Bottom line: stop at nothing to gain power.
Johnson and his ilk went on to advocate for the Great Society programs, building on FDR's concepts. Some good, like Medicare came of that but we also got a welfare culture from it.