[spintreebob]

Nobody questioned the news back then, and the media was a reliably faithful watchdog

This is blatantly false. My parents and millions of others would point out the bias and false premise and lies of Edward R Murrow and his era. Likewise the era of Walter Cronkite was filled with bias, false premise and lies.

The most common bias of the media is the 50s was that the government MUST solve all problems. The lack-of-bias was whether the Eastern Republican solution or the Democrat solution was best.

[Gargantua]

I agree with you. The author apparently feels that the real big change this time was public access to, and use of, the internet.

It is true that Cronkite, et al, were probably just as biased back then, It's just that, back then, people had no alternative. We do now.