The media is a perfect example of the lack of integrity. Once celebrated as the bastion of democracy and noted as the 4th estate in the Constitution, it is now bought and toothless. It resembles the media of the late-stage Soviet Union. The Russian people had largely become incredibly cynical and distrustful about the managed information coming from government -controlled sources.
The Russian people engaged in what they called “Vraryo.” An interesting form of “Doublethink.” The state-run news outlets were lying; the Russian citizens knew they were lying, the government knew the Russian people knew they were lying, but everyone played along.
To make it all make sense, Russians developed a logic system of decoding the lies. They paid close attention to what was omitted; what was left out became more important than what was said. If someone disappeared or the crop numbers were not there, that person was likely purged, and there was a massive crop failure.
The ultimate purpose of late-Soviet propaganda and new American media propaganda is not direct control, like the current term “Flooding the zone”; it functions as a ritual, filling screens and newspapers with mindless non-facts and fluff pieces about anything but the truth. It builds the feeling, if you agree with them, “It’s all good here.” But if you disagree, then it demands compliance with the background narrative, at least outwardly, while creating enormous stress to comply.