National politics is a very specific topic - where I agree, depending on your outlet’s leaning (assuming a person listens to only one) you got a very different picture. In truth much of the aforementioned book takes an international look, but I think the timeframe you present is just a local version of our international information spin/silence problems. You do recall when the United States’ previous president barred certain outlets from briefings
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/24/media-blocke... this is probably more rare for how brazen it was rather than common