Tucker Carlson would be closer to the "Flak" than the New York Times though. He has been pushed to the margins by his previous employer Fox, who are more or less a flak machine at least compared to elite media that are taken seriously by policy makers and the academics that shape those policies.
That's a good point. The mass media and elite media really use different language, which is an additional obstacle. They don't seem to be a part of the same structure, and are presented to be at odds.
I am reminded how Chomsky described the 1930s, that working class people were often pretty well-read. The above divide seems to help in maintaining the ignorance.
