This Scientific American article from 2016 is a fairly eye-opening report on the tactic that most government, scientific, and corporate agencies use to control coverage of them by the media. It describes the tactic of giving a select group of privileged reporters early access to breaking news, in exchange for relinquishing journalistic independence. That tactic is known as a close-hold embargo. Basically, the reporters would be instructed on how to report the story in order to have the scoop. As one might expect, the slimiest, most amoral, opportunistic reporters jump at this Faustian bargain, since they have no soul to sell anyway. But the effect on the profession of journalism at large is devastating: the most high-profile media outlets become nothing more than stenographers, willingly publishing whatever they are told. In exchange, they get the exclusive.
Think that garbage you watch on TV is “news”? It is a series of polished turds, propaganda in pure-heroin form, manufactured in scientific fashion by the very industry or government agency being covered, designed to elicit a particular response from the person ingesting it. And they are getting that response.
