Just more evidence that altho the press is free of the government, the government is not free of the press. And it should not rightfully be. The trouble is that the press has self-organized into a cartel under the aegis of the continuous virtual meetings which are the wire services generally, and the AP in particular. For the government to be under the thumb of a unitary press is no different from the press being under the thumb of the government. Because, all protestations to the contrary, journalism is about bad news and
not about the public interest.
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)