My thinking is starting to evolve on this. I think the TV shows 'live soap operas' were to hypnotize the public into 'live soap opera government' and to get us hooked on the propaganda from the fakenews. JFK assassination was the first test of 'hey we're the news. Trust us to tell you everything.'.
My belief is that 'As the world turns' was the TV thought control shift from 'reality' to 'whatever they told us reality was'. That's when we went 'down the rabbit hole' as a Nation and as a global race of hypnotized sheep.