How the Attention Economy Enables Corrupt Politicians to Maintain Power and Evade Scrutiny

This paper argues that corrupt politicians can evade accountability by combining media saturation, algorithmic amplification, dark-money visibility purchases, and incumbency-based institutional protection—producing scandal fatigue and public withdrawal that insulate them from electoral consequences.

Using the Larry Householder case as an anchor, the paper traces how each mechanism operates and how they interact. It documents the role of engagement optimization in amplifying spectacle over substance, the structural opacity of political finance that accelerates paid persuasion beyond disclosure timelines, and the legitimacy advantages of incumbency that complicate accountability journalism.

The paper concludes with reform levers across campaign finance transparency, platform content accountability, investigative journalism capacity building, and electoral reform, arguing that durable accountability requires structural changes rather than relying on public attention alone.