US media are state propaganda. They have merely managed to create an illusion of independence because the methods by which they are controlled are sophisticated and embedded into the system itself via class interest. The control mechanisms are so omnipresent that people in the west don't even notice them, much like a fish doesn't notice the water around it because it is completely surrounded by it and has known nothing else its entire life. This is what the Nazis called "Gleichschaltung", a complete and total ideological alignment of all mainstream media, educational institutions and big capital with the ideology of the state, they are all in lockstep with the neoliberal imperialist agenda. There is no major institution of American society that dares contradict the official line when it comes to the political or economic system, or the United States' global imperialist project.

(possibly @Eugene_V_Dabs@hexbear.net but not sure)