I live in a large college town. Huge, prestigious flagship U. It is one of the great mysteries of the world to me that my otherwise exceedingly smart friends and neighbors, all of whom I love dearly, see no hint of the clown show that this has been from the minute the report was released. And it is one of the great mysteries of the world to them that a smart fellow like me has not drunk all 256 oz of the Mueller/Nadler Koolaid.
It really is the darndest thing.
Two answers to the mystery.
1 is MEDIA NETWORK PROGRAMMING.
2 is SOCIAL WEBSITE MANIPULATION.
Both of the above rely on a known trait of 'subconscious' in that if you repeat something three times to it, it stores it as fact. The conscious can override that, but the conscious is usually in a hypnotic state while watching TV, for instance.
The RADIO and TV MARKETING industry found this out long ago and has used it ever since.