Well, they're definitely lying now. I'll grant that in some ways it is more obvious now.

But project Mockingbird goes back to the 70's, doesn't it?

I've heard others say they've been lying a long, long time... and I think that's more likely to be right.

I myself started journalism school in 1996. I was told very clearly that as a journalist, I had to use the words and phrases from the Associated Press guidebook for certain subjects (ethnicities, immigrants etc), and that while I could use other more descriptive phrases:

1. No outlet in Canada would run stories that didn't use those words
2. If they did run the stories, editors would change the articles to use the preferred phrases anyway.

This is effectively censorship - narrative control. It's not possible to publish a story that is against, for example, mass immigration, if all the words you are allowed to use for the subject contain clear narrative biases.

I didn't stay in the journalism program. I like to think I kept my integrity there, at least.