The US was doing much worse stuff during the WW2 era, this was during segregation after all. I don't actually disagree with any of your points. In fact another

The US was doing much worse stuff during the WW2 era, this was during segregation after all. I don't actually disagree with any of your points. In fact another example is how torture is consistently portrayed in a positive light in hollywood movies (when it's the "good guys" doing it). My point is that the fact that we are freely having this discussion, and able to access reliable sources of information without government impediment, is in itself very significant in the context of human experience on earth in 2022. The US is still in a situation where we can self-correct. Crying wolf about the state of press freedom is counterproductive and harms the credibility of people working to actually improve things. For example, what the US is doing to Julian Assange is wrong. However, if Russia had been equally pissed at him they would have simply murdered him long ago. There is still a system within which to work in the US, and pretending it doesn't exist is self-defeating and draws attention away from possible solutions.