The water carrying comes in supporting the debate between the two:
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”
― Noam Chomsky, The Common Good
I don’t read USNews much but I would imagine that they are like all the other media outlets and more or less owned by Pfizer’s advertising arm.
He who pays the pipe calls the tune.
And Pfizer says don’t buck the established narrative.
Chomsky used to be okay until he started parroting establishment talking points too.