Activity

It does not determine  how the press can function or what its ultimate purpose is or even if it needs to have an ultimate purpose. It does not prevent the press from being bought off by special interests. It does not prevent journalists from being dishonest.

If the press is openly hostile to a segment of the population as most mainstream media is, you shouldn’t be surprised those people don’t trust it. — OneG

Interesting how you got from “free” to “hostile”. What segment are they hostile toward? People setting fire to buildings maybe?

You’re right, since they are “free”, they are free to be dishonest and get bought off. But that only works if there is one “they”. As long as government doesn’t favor or censor one media company over another , each is free to report not only what they see is true, but also what they see other media companies doing. Since it would be bad for business to be too direct about that, some of this commentary is done via comedy.