How much power does the media have?

I swear that sometimes the media come out with the most peculiar stuff which for some reason people choose to believe.
Obviously I'm going to talk about the media's power in sport and not talk about politics, as this is a sports forum. But it might be just me and my paranoid, wacko crack-pot mind but the media has seemed to have persecuted us for years!
Maybe its me just overreacting, as it does seem that every fan feels the same, yet disagrees when it comes to "who do the media hate more"

Lets start with some examples. Well first of all they seem to underrate or overrate certain players. The best example is Wayne Rooney. For years he has been considered to be England's saviour, despite the fact he not nearly technically gifted enough to end England's barren run and finally win a trophy. But so far he has yet to even score in the world cup, the biggest competition on earth. In fact I seem to remember him getting sent off at a crucial point in the game! Rooney so far in his England career has scored 28 goals in 73 games, which isn't great, but isn't terrible. But Crouch on the other hand has 22 in 42, which is actually a mile ahead of Rooney's ratio. Drogba who by most pundits and fans hasn't been as good as Rooney for the last 3-4 years, but internationally he is a machine, 50 goals in 76 appearances, a hell of a lot better than both Rooney's and Crouch's, in fact he has scored more goals than those two combined in less games. The media don't seem to realise that rooney isn't going to lead the England team to glory. Not only that but the media are forever telling us that he is the best English player and the best player playing for England. It is arguable that Rooney is the best English player, I don't disagree with that, but he is certainly not that great when he plays for England. I would much prefer to see a Darren Bent, Crouch partnership than seeing Rooney leading the line. You might ask why does this bother me at all, it bothers me when people write us off getting us past the group stage in the European cup just because we are without Rooney. He is not going to make a big difference to our survival, so stop banging on about how we are doomed and how the FIFA must shorten his ban!

Luiz on the other hand is apparently useless, despite the fact statistics and facts show otherwise. Not saying he isn't perfect, but he is by no means the weak link in our defence, if anything it is Cole and Bosingwa who struggle the most.
Secondly I feel City have had it easier than us from the media. Completely crazy tbh, as both teams have similar philosophies and are run in similar ways. This season I have heard constantly how good a team City are, which is fair enough, they are a good team. But recently their form has been poor, last 5 premier league games they have, won 2 lost 2 and drew once, not only that but they have also been knocked out of Europe. Now our form may have been worse, and they also are in a way stronger position than us, but I don't think anyone has high lighted that the team has lost some momentum. In our last 6 games we have won 2, lost 1, and drew 3. In the last 6 we have collected 9 points, in the last 6 City have collected 10, not a lot of difference there, and apparently we are having a crisis. I even seen some people write off United, because City have been so spectacular of late, even though (excluding the Blackburn result) United have been better.

Finally my last rant. Now this might hold some bias, but I will try to stay in the middle. Terry over the years has been on the media spot light constantly. And for me this has annoyed me as whenever he has been in the news papers, Chelsea have performed poorly. Terry isn't any sort of saint. Obviously. It is by no means Satan himself! Why do the media go on about him in particular, I know he is the England captain but he shouldn't be treat any differently than the likes of Rooney, Saurez or Giggs. Saurez was found guilty of being racist, whereas Terry hasn't been found guilty of anything yet, so why is everyone still talking about Terry being racist? Rooney (it might seem I hate him but I don't) and Giggs cheated on their wives, as did Terry, but they were far worse. Now Rooney slept with two prostitutes, Giggs slept with his brothers Wife. Terry deserves more respect than Rooney as he isn't ridiculous enough to pay some prostitutes, and he also didn't betray his own flesh and blood. For me, the Terry fiasco was way bigger than both, this might be because I'm a Chelsea fan, but I was hearing about Terry for weeks.

To conclude, I believe the media have been able to influence the general public with their bias opinion, newspapers like the Daily 'Fail' and The Sun, along with broadcasting such as MOTD, are the worst and by far the most hateful at times. Best thing to do is to just watch the games your self, judge it by your own accord, and ignore what they say in the media.