just because people can give criticism does not mean the system actually accepts criticism or even that it does not retaliate against such criticism. yes there are instances where criticism has led to genuine change (easy example is “The Jungle”), but for every instance of successful criticism i argue there are hundres, thousands, even millions of instances where said criticism has led to the harassment and discrimination; tenfold if the person was a minority in any capacity. by and large american media, industry, government, and society has suppressed any and all forms of criticism or even nonhegemonic thought until its existence has been so normalized amongst cishet white peoplr that they finally let it exist in a heavily moderated and monetized manner. this can be seen time and time again with hayes codes, mccarthyism, the civil rights movement, the suffrage movement, queer acceptance, trans acceptance, the war on drugs, 9/11 and the wars in the middle east. we are actively seeing it right now; you cannot look at the NYT, Time magazone, the WSP, CNN, or any major American media institution and tell me that they are actually free press. At best they are controlled opposition. this is not a conspiracy theory, these are documented facts¹. This has only gotten worse as more tech CEOs have bought more and more news and media companies. anyone who actually reports on important, topical information in a way that is contradictory to the Americam hegemonic system of thought has been target, oppressed, and even sanctioned². Mainstream media has enjoyed a degree of freedom allowed by the understanding that maintaining the visage of a free press was important, the current high profile cases as of late³ are realistically the exception correcting itself.

America is not free, has never been free, and will never be free until the system is radically and fundamentally changed. The ideals expressed in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are noble, but the implementation of those beliefs were created by entitled white men who encoded racism, misogyny, bigotry, and hatred into the DNA of the country. At one point there may have been an opportunity to change the direction of America to actually align with the values it professed, but much like a cancer that has metastasized to every part of the body any effective treatment would be lethal; America cannot both exist and actually improve. From the moment this country was built on stolen land we have placed ourselves on fhe wrong side of hidtory, and what has become evident now has always been evident to black, brown, queer, and disabled people. It is not a few apples that are rotten; the barrel itself has rotted.

^1. https://futureofmedia.hsites.harvard.edu/us-media-index^

^2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_government_attacks_on_journalists_in_the_United_States^

^3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2026/01/31/journalists-are-being-arrested-fired-and-silenced-what-this-means-for-the-future-of-the-profession/^