[AnthonyMouse]

Media organizations that receive non-trivial government funding have to be wary of criticizing the politicians who secure them that funding and then readers want to be aware of that potential bias, because media companies are otherwise expected to critically investigate politicians. There is no such expectation for car companies.

The reason car companies don't get the "state sponsored media" flag isn't that they're not state sponsored, it's that they're not media organizations.