Far from being mutually contradictory, these concerns have actually been closely linked throughout history. The phrase "bread and circuses" is often associated with the fear of powerful elites manipulating pop-culture levers to control the masses, while the term "noblesse oblige" is common a shorthand term for the idea that powerful elites bear some higher responsibility for maintaining order in a world dominated by easily distracted masses.
Elite, high-brow HN readers wanting to know more might be interested in Eric Alterman's 2008 New Yorker article, "Out of Print: The Death and Life of the American Newspaper" (http://nyr.kr/11PL44), while the mass of low-brow HN readers might prefer the 2006 Mike Judge movie Idiocracy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/).