I think that the media really are just the medium. The only thing that they want to make us do is to be haveing them.
Religious belief is persecuted because it is compared as a scientific theory and the comparison is disappointing. But there is obvious evidence that religion is valueable to people.
In fact, religion is about spirituality. It is a subjective experience that is not available to scientific observation. But these kind of experiences are discounted in a materialistic culture except by those on the fringes.