The Church had been able to kill the heretics called Albigensians, and to put a temporary stop to that nonsense. But because of the revolution in publishing, it was never able to stamp out the heresy of Lutheranism of people who read the source materials, made their own interpretation, and agreed with Luther. But this cannot change the fact that it is no longer required that one kiss the ring of Abe Rosenthal or his successors in order to be heard. Of course, with democratization and freedom comes responsibility and uncertainty. The road to heaven is no longer a confident matter of following someone else's instruction.
Truth relies upon the reader's discrimination.
There is no necessary guarantee of truth under democracy, any more than there is hope of truth under tyranny. You have auto mechanics asking questions about the Federal Reserve, and housewives concerned with cryptology policy and other privacy issues. While there is no guarantee the truth will necessarily emerge in this process, there is a greater probability that some of the truth will emerge some of the time than when the editors of the New York Times, sure of their pipeline to heaven, present us with the sanctified Fiske report, and declare it a revelation of God, or good government, or whatever. Much of the traditional media has divided the ebb and flow of daily events into some equivalent of the ancient Greek separation of the material world into the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. But the Internet has potentially fragmented Lippmann's limited stereotypes into 20 million diverse web pages.