It was a planned system, not a controlled system as evidenced by authoritarians. Vivian notes, however, that although there was a great deal of philosophy involved in this system, it consistently came off as authoritarian. This is an outgrowth of the libertarian concept and manages, if we are lucky, to remedy some of the problems with the libertarian system. Libertarians believed that people can know the truth when they can choose, and the press will provide the ideas. They believed that the media are diverse and independent.
People have good access to the press.
But, Vivian mentions Upton Sinclair's 1919 novel, The Brass Check , in which powerful interests are able to bribe their way into news print, abusing the special freedoms given to the press in this country. Growth of the business in the 19th Century led to a number of problems, all showing weaknesses in a privately-owned press given the responsibility of maintaining a marketplace of ideas. Orson Welles Citizen Kane movie in 1941 undermined confidence in the independence of the press. The complaints about the libertarian system led to the Social Responsibility Theory. A chancellor of the University of Chicago, Hutchins issued a bombshell report about the power of chains, the power of the media, and the lack of social responsibility.