Propaganda even in a democratic and liberal country exist then and still to this day. I just remembered that the character of Charles Foster Kane from "Citizen Kane" film, is himself a commentary on the power and influence that the media has on the minds of the people.

"People will think what I tell them to think!"

The quote is relevant then and just as relevant now.

That being said, I definitely notice from the conditioning on the public particularly when it comes to immigration and class issues. In my country, the far-right reared its ugly head. A lot of it has been fueled by resentment with competition with migrants from the lack of housing, as the result of decade long apprehension to building social housing and ideological austerity. However, the mainstream media shies away from outright mentioning the root cause. Social media and news outlets still relegate those who became attracted to the far-right as "fringe", "loud minority", "uneducated", "scumbags" or "riff raffs". Those terms have underlying classism and is thinly-veiled insult to the working class. But even if some folks try to acknowledge the real root cause, even they still stop short of clearly saying that housing shortage is the major problem but rather use the manicured phrase "those with genuine concerns". And politicians in my country tend to say that phrase rather than admitting "housing crisis is the root cause", because many politicians are landlords themselves.