No, in most cases (e.g. except for Berlusconi) it's not tight control, the beauty of it (for the elites) is that the mainstream media can be made to write what suits the elite by making media representatives part of the elite and make them dependent on government sources. What's more, different elites still influence different segments of the mass media this way, which can argue against each other. What's more, there are still voices even in the mass media not too beholden even to the elites on their side. So even if it's not a pretty picture, Putin supporters shouldn't deceive themselves with such an equivocation - most Western governments do not have a near-complete control of information flows.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}