The education system and the media was traditionally tightly controlled or monopolized by a handful of interests. With few players on the field they could weave

The education system and the media was traditionally tightly controlled or monopolized by a handful of interests. With few players on the field they could weave together a more-or-less coherent story. But was that actually the truth? We only know that the stuff that was debunked was false. As for "information literacy", it's an ideal to strive for, but impossible in practice. It's simply not possible for everyone to be literate at everything. For the topics a person is not familiar with, they need to trust a source at some point. A bit of knowledge is often a hindrance than helpful. With modern tools at hand and sufficient motivation, one with an agenda can fool anyone except the best experts. TBH I think "objective truth" is going down the drains and it's not coming back. The version of truth you believe in is actually real, other people will vehemently disagree, and there will be no mechanism to objectively decide who is right. It might sound pessimistic, but this kind of "diversity" in subjective beliefs can be very useful for other reasons (which is mostly off-topic).