I should really read that. It's been sitting on my shelf forever.

To be clear though, I meant the for-profit media, which affects all both sides. Like everyone on MSNBC is constantly acting "shocked" and are "surprised" at every single new event that happens.

News is entertainment, not factual conveyance of information. And what information that does manage to make it through is heavily biased, which only makes it all the easier to disprove it.

e.g. the right talks about how cities are literally on fire and shops don't even exist anymore as all the windows are boarded up. The left counters with how every single person in a city is so "safe" and crime basically never happens, as the stats show (they say). We all here know that both of those are bold-faced lies, but put yourself in the mind of a young person from a rural or suburban area that has barely or even never spent any time in a city environment: all it would take is one single trip to a city where their car window gets shattered (even while they are still in it?) and/or they get shot at or mugged and bam, instantly they no longer believe the leftist media bias, even if they also still aren't ready to accept the full right-wing source either. But this being a 2-party system, NOT voting for the Democrats translates into allowing the Republicans to win.

But MSNBC will still act shocked, and Democrats will still write strongly written letters. It is performative acts all the way down (note I am not saying all the way through, but those in power at all levels i.e. of both media and actual governance).

Edit: also that >30 year old documentary would predate the actual and literal buyout of most media sources, which had heavily bet on the model of providing information free while served with ads, by not merely allies of but the literal individuals who are the elite. e.g. Musk purchasing Twitter, converting it into X, Bezos purchasing the Washington Post, and so on. I suppose they still do manufacture consent though:-D - but they now do it in a much more raw and naked form than 30+ years in the past, e.g. Musk not only censors posts on X but also posts directly there himself as well.