A remarkable column by Richard Fernandez at PJMedia.com compares the establishment American media to an establishment Reformation-era church, noting that both were mere tools of state interest and protectors of the ruling class.
The relationship is perfectly illustrated in the below jpg.
It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so
express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so
far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe
his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared
himself for the commission of every other crime.
Thomas Paine
in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating
man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted
by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised..
When
you see a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may
depend on it, that he keeps a very small stock of it within.
C. H. (Charles Haddon) Spurgeon
Media Incest Illustrated