The issue is (a) the disproportionate amount of cash resources in large entities compared to small and (b) the dominant effect of consolidated media businesses who will sell all the yelling power you can pay for. This places the power to twist futures into the hands of the wealthiest. Their natural instinct will be to twist those futures in ways which expand their wealth regardless of other merit.
As a remedy, perhaps we should make it a civil offense to promulgate false information in a political cause, or to libel or slander a politician with false or misleading statements. A standard of truth could do a lot to revive the democracy.
When folks are willing to be herded with false data, as has occurred so often, the cattle prod belongs to he who can flood the data channel, not he who has the most reliable data.