That’s too extreme.

Plenty of good journalism that is critical of the government and “the establishment” happens in the US[0][1]. There are also cases where 100% legit journalism is unreasonably attacked and punished. Both of these things can be true; we don’t have to declare the US as either 100% perfect and free or 100% corrupt and authoritarian where every single instance of “real” journalism results in torture and murder.

[0] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/newsplus/finalists-fo...

[1] https://theintercept.com/2021/12/26/us-military-impunity-gen...