It's updated slightly for modern communication speed, but it assumes the press is trusted when it's
literally the least trusted institution right now. Left and Right have already segmented themselves out and formed MSM and social media bubbles; the main effect of leftists' prepared stories will be to reinforce the beliefs of the side who already chose to watch them.
You can already see it with MSM articles vs Andy Ngo and Tucker Carlson. The former have their edits of the riots, the latter have theirs, and
conveniently both manage to get opposite narratives out of the same footage, depending on what they want to pitch. The narrative matters less than what the optics are for the people in power, and their decisions are driven by more practical issues than rhetorical ones.
Specifically, the decision dilemma doesn't work on an actor who doesn't care about its optics--and hey, guess who's President right now? The guy who gassed a street full of protesters so he could do a photo op with a borrowed Bible. That single action reduced the riots into protests, and they spent the last month trying to build up the same level of street power they had. They've only managed it in Seattle/CHAZ and Portland, and only in tiny areas.
Trump refused to take the bait, and forced the decision dilemma onto local Democratic politicians instead. It's why everyone's so frantic about Portland, it's the only place remaining with street power and a federal presence they can focus on provoking.
The street blockages may be more successful, because it forces dilemmas onto random
individuals, not law enforcement institutions or politicians. But while the normies can't identify with camo-clad feds wielding guns, they
can empathize with a normal guy just trying to get home from work, who freaks out at being surrounded by a mob.