No it is not. You are clueless. GE was about to become insolvent because their balance sheet is a debt bomb. The debt was going to get downgraded, which would have caused the credit default swaps (CDS) to skyrocket and the company would become insolvent overnight. See old KMart, Lehman, Bear, the list goes on.
Uncle Sam Obama backstopped all the GE debt which is in the hundreds of billions. GE kept their bogus AAA debt rating. Totally corrupt company and propagandists for the regime.
Free press means not directly controlled by the government.
It leaves all kind of room for the crony capitalism you describe.
Such shenanigans violate the spirit of The Free Press, not its letter. As for that matter does the shameless Obama-worship we see in the media.
Freedom includes the power to do stupid and corrupt things. What would be your solution? A law that would somehow enforce the spirit of the “freedom of the press?”