Of course the powerful will always mobilize their resources to consolidate their power, including the media to confuse and mislead the public.
The public relations industry became the largest industry in the US precisely because democratic mechanisms legally exist there, and power needed a way to circumvent that by controlling public opinion. But, just because it is inevitable that power will try to circumvent the participation of the people in decision-making, it is not inevitable that they will succeed, and you can look just to the south of the US for proof of this.
As I have said numerous times, Islam does not have a mandatory system, we have mandatory rules, and it is up to us to craft a system for the successful implementation of those rules. The fact that Islam does not have a mandatory system is proof that there is no such thing as a perfect system; if there was one, Allah and His Messenger (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam) would have delineated it for us and commanded us to implement it.
Every system will have shortcomings, and, yes, the powerful will always try to exploit those shortcomings. If we imagine that we have to come up with a flawless system that will relieve us of the need to enjoin good and forbid evil and strive to advance the Cause of Islam, and struggle for justice…then that is an idealism doomed to failure.
We have experienced the severe shortcomings of governmental systems that exclude the population from decision-making…that is what we are suffering from now.
Yes, the powerful will try to manipulate public opinion, try to persuade millions of citizens to support what is wrong and unjust, if democratic mechanisms exist…but if democratic mechanisms do NOT exist, how many people will they have to convince? Only one: the ruler. And if he is corrupted, there is nothing that can be done to correct him