It's not just McLuhan - even Ayn Rand's "villain" in the Fountainhead was a caricature of Wm. Randolph Hearst.

That's turned out to be quite useful in understanding how distorted American history is, and floats independent of any controversial ideological content in her work.

People were a lot more naive in 1964 in general. I am not sure that McLuhan was taken seriously then.

Tow things I'll never fully understand about America in the post-war era - how is it that the Dulles brothers were allowed to operate as state-sponsored Filibusters[1] and how is it that Jim Crow was so heavily defended?

[1] see William Walker in South America for that word - a person who engages in unauthorized warfare.