The difference between now and say 30 years ago is many media companies were independently owned, now, like food in supermarkets, there are a few conglomerates that own all the media companies.
If you go to the local level, John Oliver did a segment on Sinclair Broadcast Group that owns a bunch of local news stations and pushes political propaganda to them.
No, he has an agenda as well. His position is a little less influenced now though because HBO's business model doesn't involve advertisements. I'm sure he doesn't bite the hand that feeds him either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_conglomerate
If you go to the local level, John Oliver did a segment on Sinclair Broadcast Group that owns a bunch of local news stations and pushes political propaganda to them.
http://www.indiewire.com/2017/07/john-oliver-local-news-cons...
The point being is you have all our media digestible content, particularly news, controlled by a handful of corporations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexstar_Media_Group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
Sinclair, the one Oliver mentions, covers 40% of US households and is only the second largest next to Nexstar.