Do 'they' really hold the mirror up to the us?

As stated by Erna Smith (Media Studies at San Francisco State University); “News coverage of the same event can communicate different underlying meanings by elevating some facts and downplaying others. Thus, news frames are as important as component of news as the facts themselves.” (10, Slick Spins and Fractured Facts: How Cultural Myths Distort the News)
Scholar Dallas Smythe observes that; “the media are adept at the magician’s tricks of misdirection, or distracting audiences away from important matters and directing them towards the trivial and unimportant. (173, Media Thing: The Role of the Media in Supporting the Establishment)
“When it comes to the news media, an analysis of corporate ownership and influence, the process of newsroom socialization, the assertion that the news Is largely a management product, all of these would lead us to expect that the news media would either discourage or preclude entirely, those views which challenge or oppose corporate ownership values. (174, Media Thing: The Role of the Media in Supporting the Establishment)