The problem with your argument is that everyone thinks "the other guy" is a sheep. If true, the odds are huge that you are, too.
The news media, both print and TV, are a shadow of what they used to be. Walter Cronkite used to be the most trusted man in America, a tragic miscalculation by viewers, but today's anchors are basically jokes. Few could even name them. Normal people have lost confidence in the media and recognize that the media are biased and pushing an agenda. If the media were truly interested in running a business rather than pushing an ideology, wouldn't there be more Fox News channels and less CNN? Why would the three major TV networks all have far left evening anchors rather than give a conservative a shot? Why would the major newspapers in every major city continue to bleed red ink rather than try being more objective?
It is true that most people, not all but most, are herded to some degree. The trick is to not get yourself so deep into one herd that you can't see there may be better choices than the ones being sold to you by your particular sheep herder. The trick is one thing, but the real problem is a government and their media mouthpieces that don't even want you to know another herd exists at all, or if one does exist it must be bad, real bad. Both political elements are guilty of this, but the left certainly has a bigger microphone, especially when it comes to race relations.
Air America was nonstop drivel. I tried to listen to it, it was just drivel hour after hour. I used to listen to Radio Moscow at the height of the cold war, some of the blowhards on Air America reminded me of that commie drivel.
Herd mentality? I experience it on the highway all the time. I'll finally break free of a traffic pile, and sooner or later some asshole glues himself to my tailpipe, then another...and another. Motherfuckers. Leave me the fuck alone! I hate that fucking shit!!! They have succesfully dragged me into the dangers of their bad driving habits once again (or the inevitable ticket breaking away from their clinging ways). Oh, and the same applies to politics. Fucking cows (or sheep, if you will).