I think that's a phat cop-out. The media can steer the public narrative, but it cannot create predispositions out of whole cloth. I think Americans, especially those raised in the shadow of the cold war, have a predisposition towards wanting a militarily aggressive government. And Carter argued against that, and was reviled for it and seen as weak. I think the media steered that narrative and maybe made Carter less popular than he would otherwise be, but I don't think they created that visceral reaction in people: that his actions showed weakness on the part of America and the gut aversion to showing weakness. I think that was always there and the media just took advantage of it.
Alright, I can't much argue against this as I'm not American and only have been living America for a year in 2005.
However, I do believe that it is hard to underestimate the power of the media and propaganda that has been and is going on, not only in the US but almost anywhere in the world. Of course there is some predisposition towards power and everything that comes with it, but it's fueled, driven and used by the media and people who control it. And people can change quickly if they realize that this has gone to far.
Just look at Germany after WWII, it's now one of the least aggressive states there is and I can tell you from personal experience that there is no predisposition towards military aggressiveness whatsoever... And we (as I am German) are still the same kind of people who we have been during Nazi time, just differently educated or indoctrinated, whatever you want to call this.
Today, I believe we HAVE a chance to change. There is blatantly obvious mischief going on and they are struggling to hide it. We have a whistleblower with accurate information (it's funny/telling how not even the Gov is trying to dispute the facts - they are just redirecting the attention), services and platforms to distribute that information and I HAVE to believe that we can use these means to initiate this change. What would be the alternative? Keep on going? I don't want to know how that would turn out.
