What Exactly Are We Watching?

Last year the Rachel Maddow show did a very interesting story about a very interesting way the Syrian government was drumming up support. Apparently the government had been hiring actors to go on their news as average street people saying how much they love the Syrian regime. Unfortunately, this is not specific to Syria. In 2004 then president George W. Bush admitted the State department had released video news releases. Bush paid actors to pretend to be Iraqi civilians and say how much they loved the United States. With these revelations and the cooperation of much of the mainstream press, the Bush administration got away with war propaganda and lying on a massive scale to get us into a war and drum up support for said war, which killed thousands of troops and civilians. Now that we know this, how can we be sure that when we turn on the news, even today, what we are seeing is authentic? Where do we go? Well, there's the internet, but the internet is notorious for not fact checking either. I don't mean to be Mr. Gloom and Doom but when it comes to news and current events, I think we're basically screwed.