Gunna be pedantic a sec and point out that “liberalism” is by it’s foundation capitalist because it uses capitalism as it’s default assumption. The high level of afforded consideration on personal property rights outside of government interference and emphasis on an unrestricted market are features of that philosophy. Conservative ideology is actually also by it’s nature based on libralisml as its base and the American Liberal party is actually… Still on the whole basically the same ideology just with a socialist coat of paint.

A lot of the regulations on capitalist functions come from socialism. The branch of it that embraces a sort of mixed system where regulations keep the public safe from unchecked capitalism while still keeping the structure of capitalist architecture is “market socialism”

However since Americans treat the Liberal party like it is socialist, Conservatives derogatorily because they equate socialism as a slippery slope to communism (despite a history of market socialism causing a great deal of stability in the past) and Liberals as something to be weeded out because it’s idealism threatens the internal kickbacks of supporting unfettered capitalism… Hence why socialist friendly candidates are usually turned into backseaters through the Democrat’s process of elimination for the big ticket seats.

So it actually benefits the media to treat liberals as the far left and occasionally be in their corner and treated as the only other valid share of the political “marketplace” of ideas. Because liberal ideology and the Liberal party are not nessisarily a hazard to capitalism. Everything to the left of that gets little air time.