Media Tells Us What to Think About?

So if the media has the ability to direct Americans what to think about, then imagine what could happen if this gets out of control; or is it already out of control?
Generally speaking the average U.S. citizen is not that smart or has enough common sense to disect the facts of a story and be able to determine what is true and what is a fallacy. People take stories for what they are worth which is not much and believe everything that is stated. If they believe everything stated then it is easy to dupe the American public. For example, a few months back on 9/11, a few news stations reported that the Coast Guard was firing on enemy boats on the Potomac River, now many people believed that until the story was recanted; do you realize the fear that it could have caused? What is even worse is that more than one station was reporting the fallacy. If we cannot decipher fact from fiction than maybe the American public deserves to be told what to do.