Now it is, but in the past it wasn't that transparent. You had a few books, that were printed in tightly controlled and regulated printing presses, that could easily lose their printing license or their lives if they put out something against the king.
Social control was extreme until the internet. Every printing press ,every radio, every TV station was controlled by the government.
This is how Hitler got into power, he threatened or bribed newspapers to write good things about him, and others who tried to speak up, had no platform to do so, under this heavily regulated system.
So a heavily regulated and centralized political system is the seed of destruction for itself. It always ends up in tyranny.