The US is not like the USSR, but they accomplish the same ends. In a totalitarian state, you suppress things and write your own history. In the US...you only need to suppress things until no one cares. By the time 2000 rolls around, no one gives a shit about that flight you remembered going down in 1996.

You could put all the videos, photos and eyewitness testimony you want and no one will remotely give a shit. It's really quite amazing, because America achieves the same end goal of other suppressive nations while maintaining the illusion of a totally free media. It's pretty ingenious.

FTFA:

At the end of this short segment, Kosik asked me why there might have been a cover-up. “This was Bill Clinton’s Benghazi moment,” I said. “They [the Clintons] just wanted to kick this can down the road until after November so it would not affect the outcome of the [1996] election.” When CNN released the transcript the next day, someone had edited out my answer.

Nice find, OP. I want to read the book, now. The author states early on that "Whatever its flaws, America is not the Soviet Union." Maybe not, but CNN is Pravda .

I think America has more of a problem with its press, and a burgeoning problem with its internet (FaceBook, Google), than it has with its government regulatory bodies. NTSB seems generally to do good work, but the people who want to "shape the narrative" are terrifying. The difference between the USA and the USSR? American manipulation relies on soft power.