The common-denominator media didn't put a stop to disinformation and scams, but it did provide some limits to how completely they could alter your worldview. In

The common-denominator media didn't put a stop to disinformation and scams, but it did provide some limits to how completely they could alter your worldview. Information contradicting the mainstream media (which was a realer institution then than it is now) had to be quite convincing to take hold.