What free press?
The AP gleefully admitted that they submitted stories to the whitehouse for approval.
The AP gleefully admitted that they submitted stories to the whitehouse for approval.
That is what a (singular) free press looks like: all journalists following the natural predilection of journalists to report bad news about - IOW, to criticize - “the man who is actually in the arena,” who works to a bottom line. In that speech, T. Roosevelt said, “it is not the critic who counts” - but you cannot expect critics themselves to agree with that. And journalists do not. Business incentives drive journalism into cynicism - claiming to be objective when they have excellent reason to understand that they are otherwise is cynical - and into a symbiotic relation with equally cynical socialist politicians.All journalists have that same incentive, but in a competitive environment there used to be more of a niche for non-socialist reporting. Wire service journalism in general, and the AP in particular, make journalism ideologically homogeneous:
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public . . . - Adam Smith, Wealth of NationsHence, my tag line . . .