Painful realization and admission:
Sometimes I catch myself happily energized by exaggerated news if I feel like it plays into my narrative and is being weaponized against people I perceive to be the opposition. I seem to justify it by leaning on the fact that I *know* "those people" are evil/wrong in general so who cares if this specific story is a little over-the-top right?
Being on the other side of this makes it very clear.