I like the assumption that propaganda just exists in a vacuum. Kinda like rain or sunshine. "Oh, it's propaganda-ing today. maybe I should wear my coat." It just happens. It somehow ends up in the news, and is somehow repeated endlessly on the news. What is propaganda? Maybe it like a computer virus that infects the electronics used by journalists to create stories and they unknowingly pass it along to their publishers until the entire structure is infected. It surely isn't the journalists fault. They can't help reporting how many soldiers die in war without comparing that number to the number that die during peacetime for a frame of reference. They can't help citing  phony sources that tell disturbing stories. It must be that pesky propaganda. Tisk tisk. Dear us. We might as well just go the way of the Romans 'cause let's face it, democracy just can't cope with propaganda.