This ruling does not allow governmental control of the media, Pete. It eliminates them from the formula. It stifles any attempts to tell the public the things that they have a right to know. No one wants to be whisked off to prison (or erased), so the tipsters will now shut up. Without sources, there is no coverage of the underhanded things that are done in the name of "freedom."
The media will now have to settle for approved material. That is not news; it's State-sanctioned propaganda. We see some of it already. You read that unemployment claims are down, conveniently around a holiday. You hear the stories about the items that fall within the agenda. Meanwhile, scores of things pass in Congress, because they were layered into an unrelated piece of legislation. It is diversionary, as we are drawn toward choreographed news items, while other more vital stories go unnoticed or unreported.
I agree that we have had issues for a long time in our country. But it does seem to be getting worse of late. Secret prisons around the world. Lack of due process. Drones. Spying on normal citizens. Crackdowns via the IRS. Selling guns to drug cartels "accidentally." It goes on and on. We do things to others; we do things to our own. It's embarrassing and troubling.
I am not blaming any party or administration. Fact is, our country has done a lot of the rotten stuff for which other countries are exposed and shamed. We simply have better public relations and the self-impression that we are somehow above everyone else in the world. You know who used to think that they were the greatest on Earth? The Etruscans. The Maya. The Aztecs. The Hittites. The ancient Egyptians. ... pick just about any culture. We have been around for a mere second compared to other empires. Our leaders would do well to remember that.