Point Of View

I started to talk to my friend about politics and the government. This is what he says, "A good issue is the media manipulation of the facts for personal agendas. 85% of the CIA's multi-billion dollar budget is committed to U.S. media manipulation when it states clearly in their charter that the CIA is not supposed to operate within the 50 states." He knows way more about politics and government stuff than me but what is he trying to say here? The media is brainwashing Americans to believe what the government wants us to believe. Is this true? I think so. 
The media is used to brainwash peoples minds into thinking that there is something wrong with a certain issue. For example when the presidential debate comes around, people are brainwashed into thinking that one candidate is the best out there for our country. These candidates say things about other candidates to try to get people to think that the other candidate is horrible because of rumors and stuff. What I believe is that politics today is based on perception of reality, but not exactly reality itself. The news on politics is a little biased, so they give out information that they decide to give. Not exactly all the sides of a certain story. 
There is not really a legitimate source that I can use to prove that the government is using the media to brainwash Americans because like I said, these things are used to brainwash and the government does not want us to know that they are doing this to us. The only sources out there are opinions like this blog..