In 1970, I was recently returned combat veteran of the Vietnam War and a brand-new member of the NRA. I was watching NBC TV one evening and a news program featuring Bob Abernathy came on with a long, rambling screed against gun owners and gun ownership. I called the station and asked to rebut Mr. Abernathy on air. They laughed at me.
That evening, while I was working on a Time Share Module (Look up that piece of antediluvian technology separately) on my programming homework at Cal State Northridge when a friend, an early version of a hacker, told me that I could access the AP hotline from that same computer system. I typed a letter of response to Mr. Abernathy (I still have it) and transmitted it through AP to KNBC in Burbank.
The phone was ringing when I got home and it was the Station Manager, telling me that they enjoyed my letter and marveling that I could pull that trick off. They invited me to meet with them the next day.
I went to Burbank wearing my best (and only) sport coat and driving my 1952 MG-TD. When I got in the station, the carpets got thicker and the secretaries leggier the closer I got to the Station Manager's office.
I had a half hour with the guy who kept saying "I agree with you more than you realize" but making it clear that they had no intention of letting me rebut Mr. Abernathy or anyone else.
At the end of the half hour I asked the guy if I could ask a separate question: I had watched the coverage they were giving to the Vietnam War and I noticed that they and the rest of the media always showed negative news about the war. They just showed when we lost people or interviewed disgruntled rear-area types or enemy sympathizers. I said that they never show us winning fights or all the refugees coming to us rather than the enemy or the areas that were living freely because of our protection.
He said "If we showed that stuff, the war would just go on".
I said that I was surprised - I always thought that the news was supposed to give a free people unfiltered information so that we could make our own decisions.
He smiled and said "our time is up".
Nothing has changed. They still believe that they should be telling us what to believe.