[uniqueuid]

I'm sorry that you are downvoted, because your perception is pretty common and not completely wrong.

There are many well-documented cases where accountability failed, and brilliant people have written about it (Chomsky, Lippmann etc.).

But - and this is really important - it's not helpful to cynically assume that either everything is OK or that there is no accountability/meaning/use at all.

All of the important things in society (discussions, getting along, identification of problems, negotiating solutions) are not a state, but a process. There is accountability, but only as much as citizens and institutions manage to produce. Go ahead and help (constructively)!

The alternative to politics is (civil) war, the alternative to free media is basically the middle ages.

[ceilingcorner]

I wouldn’t say I am cynical, merely realistic. In my opinion, it is a fool’s errand to think that accountability or unbiased news is even a possibility. It goes against the nature of the thing. An unbiased media has never been the case and never will be. Full stop.

Thus it is better to recognize that no single entity will ever be truly honest and to instead read a variety of sources and come to your own conclusions.