IN terms of politics, remember that we only see what the Media wants us to see.... We get to know less than 10% of what really is going on. And in the US it's less than 5%. Unless one gets into an 'alternative' news source and finds out that what is really going on is extremely scary We are told who the good guy is, who the bad guy is... take the example of Milosevic... Was he a villain? did he control the Bosnian Serbs. Apparently not... he was killed in his Hague cell by changing the High Blood Pressure medication. He was a lawyer and defended himself to such an extent that the tribunal had no case. He was being judged for being elected president by a majority of the people, for defending the territorial integrity of his nation, for defending his nation against foreign attack, etc... was he evil? Take MAnuel Noriega of Panama, he was part of CIA, until he refused to cooperate in damage to hs country, he was deposed. Hussein... he was CIA since '57. He couped against the Hashemite king of Irak, and the later the President... he ravaged the Kurds and Shiites. But itwasn't until he touched all mighty BigMoney Oil in Kuwait he was made a villain. It was Rumsfeld when serving under Reagan who sold him the WMD. The Iranian Shah Muhammad Reza Palhevi... a friend of the US, cooperating in Oil extraction, with a very oppressive regime, kidnapping killing and persecuting people and minorities. He became Shah by performing a coup... HE is the good guy. The Ayatollahs are the bad guys because they rebelled against an oppressive regime... of BigOilMoney.
What you're saying is true, no question about it. The problem is conspiracy nuts, like Chomsky. They put drops of truth into their crazy theories, and then they make it worse, because everyone thinks: "this nutjob cannot possibly be right, so why should I believe there is any media filter at all." I like the search feature in google news, it's the ultimate anti-media filter tool. I just hope they don't start filtering too, like calling "relevance" to their "preferred sources"