re: How has OM been able to get members of the media to buy in to our propaganda?

The PR is more important to you all. It is part of your culture.

This thread is a good example. Fayetteville has been on lists on top of lists for the past 25 years. Fayetteville used to be this little town of 40k people in the woods where you could find a fine dining white table-cloth French Nouveau meal on the quaint town square (which itself was featured in several TV shows and movies in the 90s). The narrative used to be "look at our little neck of the woods and all the great stuff we have for a tiny little ole town this size". And we had actual billionaires driving around in beat up pickups, etc.

Then, we grew, and grew and now we're a midsized metro and TBH, most of the people here would be ok if growth stopped dead in its tracks for a decade.

The promotion and narrative isn't as important. It probably never was as important, to be honest.