It could be argued that media's primary role is not to communicate true facts, but rather to communicate information their owner wants communicated. Regardless of whether the media is a news outlet or, I don't know, your own mouth.
I'll invoke another HN post -- Donella Meadows speaking of systems highlighted the importance of accurate feedback.
You can go further and note that all models are wrong, but some are useful. And note research which suggests that perceptual systems evolve to fitness rather than accuracy, a crucial distinction.
But the perception still needs to provide useful predictive or explanatory power over the range of experienced conditions. And if yo're deliberately violating that condition, you're going to end up with some less than beneficial behaviors.
Contemporary politics in various parts of the world, and interactions with media, demonstrates this well.
