"By comparison, our press and government practiced transparency -- they may have lied, but not on the scale the others did."

"I keep slipping back into believing the United States government believes in honesty and transparency..."

The U.S. government never believed in honesty and transparency and you're lying to yourself thinking that they did. Our press has constantly manipulated us. Lies and secrets are just getting easier to expose.

I suggest you read the following:

- A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn

- Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky