Do You Believe That We, As A Society, Are Being Manipulated And Conned By The Powers That Be?

Are we being manipulated?  Of course we are.  By pretty much everyone, and manipulating us in all sorts of directions.  That's how news organizations operate, newspaper organizations operate, politicians operate, businesses operate.  Chances are, even your friends, neighbors, and coworkers are manipulating you in some fashion. 
 
But I disagree with some of your comments:
 
1) In this day and age, we are not totally dependent on TV as our sole source of information.  There are still the newspapers, which while still slanted towards their ideologies and trying to manipulate what you read, they do tend to go much more in depth in their coverage than TV does, and give more background information.  And then there's the internet, and many different sources of information there.  And in fact, with the internet, it's now easier to find opposing view points--and I regularly search out and read news from Canada, UK, France, and Russia, as well as other English language news from around the world so that I can get points of views from sources outside the US. 
2) The news will address issues of importance, but they will only do so insofar as to present the issue from the viewpoint they support so as to try to manipulate our beliefs for the advancement of what they believe--but that's what individuals do as well.  For instance, if you are having a debate about abortion, are you going to tell the person that you're debating that their position is just as correct for them as your position is for you?  I just haven't come across that type of person--we hold onto our prejudices too strongly.
3) No, we aren't being conditioned into being niave, compliant, or gullible.  That's a decision that we choose to make, or what happens when we decide to stop thinking for ourselves.  In the end, there's no one to blame but ourselves for allowing that to happen.

As a society, we are like sheep.  As individuals a few of us live outside the popular culture and have good lives and wonder why the masses continue to set themselves up for such sorrow.
 
There is a vicious ongoing battle to join the group of "powers that be" and the roster changes rapidly.  I believe that most people will look for ways to get money (and power).  Some people are better at it than others and everyone has different scruples.  People with talent for manipulation and a thirst for power and money will try many things to influence as many people as possible to act in a way that the power hungry devils get what they want.  This is only part of the problem.  I see the naive, gullible, masses as also being the problem.  No one forced anyone to get a no money down 130% mortgage with a fluffed up appraisal but the fact that so many people did it is sure causing a problem.  There is a long list of things that are popular that are not making the word a better place (watching TV is one of worst).  The bad behaviour is handing the world to the devils on a golden platter.
 
We are not being betrayed.  We are getting what we desrve.
 
The gates are all down, the signals are flashing, the engineer is blowing the horn.  So if you stay on the tracks, ignoring the facts, don't blame the wreck on the train.

I believe that while the media will only write on what they believe in and some will write with both point of views.  Most news that you hear are actually being monitored by big brother.  You only hear and see what they want you to see and hear.  They are afraid that if we all knew the truth what is going on then these big brothers will be out of office or they will be run out of town.  Look what happened to the cigarette companies when they had to published on how bad smoking is for people, granted there is still a lot of people still smoke but now a quite of few people did file a law suit and won.  Look at the pharmaceutical companies and how they pushed drugs on people and they really did not do a thorough testing on certain drugs, like celebrex, and those anti=inflammatory drugs.  Now they have to put warning labels on them.  Granted if you really want to research on any type of news that you want to read up on you have to look for it.  Some people do not have the luxury on finding these news and or they do not have the time to do any research. 

This is a fascination thread - could someone start it up as a debate?  I agree with most of whats been said, but I have to leave for Summer school so can't tarry here.  Thanks to all, wonderful input.