The system of checks and balances has been weakened. The government is afraid of the M&E industry; not of serious journalism, but of an industry that can and does influence millions of people to think things that aren't true and to disbelieve things that are.
There is no escape from this industry. There is no winning against it with one voice, or with thousands of voices, or even with several million voices. There are almost 8 billion people in the world. The majority of them are going to believe what this industry tells them through repetition until it is accepted as fact. When a story is made part of the repetition cycle, it is impossible to counteract it; the truth is made irrelevant.
This industry can do far more than get people elected or prevent them from being elected. It can and does ruin people's lives, with vicious, self-righteous, lewd, smirking glee.
I'll never be free of what this industry and the government's misogyny, cowardice and complicity have done to me. Neither will the other victims; who knows how many there have been, of various crimes, for as long as mass media and its chummy antagonism with the government have existed?
From Google for "media and entertainment industry":
