Media cannot be free. Period.

[Alien Traveler]

Media freedoms could be limited in many ways. Let’s speak about just one of these ways.
For as long as media is a for profit business it is dependent on money, on generated income. It should publish materials which will please its audience. So, if a media outlet is catering for liberals it will definitely have liberal bias. If it is catering for conservatives it will have conservative bias. If it is catering for Americans it will have pro-American bias. For-profit media should always follow tastes and opinions of its audience. For example, in the very beginning of the Iraq war about 3/4 of Americans were pro-war, and all main media was pro-war also. Media needs profit, media do not need truth which can alienate its audience.

 

[LaMidRighter]

Media freedoms could be limited in many ways. Let’s speak about just one of these ways.
For as long as media is a for profit business it is dependent on money, on generated income. It should publish materials which will please its audience. So, if a media outlet is catering for liberals it will definitely have liberal bias. If it is catering for conservatives it will have conservative bias. If it is catering for Americans it will have pro-American bias. For-profit media should always follow tastes and opinions of its audience. For example, in the very beginning of the Iraq war about 3/4 of Americans were pro-war, and all main media was pro-war also. Media needs profit, media do not need truth which can alienate its audience.

I went to school for broadcasting and can tell you that this should NOT be the philosophy of the media. While you have a point that some people cannot handle hearing things that displease them, the majority of our citizens rely on the news to make decisions in thier lives, therefore the entire truth must be published, to do otherwise would damage a company's credibility which along with advertising time are the only two commodities they have. Every single decision we make is based on the information we have at hand. Here's the way income is generated, companies sell airtime dedicated to commercial sponsors, the rates are adjusted to the popularity of the medium at the time, the more people captive to hear a marketers message, the more revenue can be collected, thus, to shun an audience is to diminish the value of advertising space/time(depending on print vs. broadcast media). Keeping the audience and advertisers in mind as a factor, the larger and more diverse the market, the more valuable the advertising block is, therefore, it is in the medias best interest to keep an honest dialogue with the recieving audience to keep that audience pleased by giving them all the pertinent information so that they can make their own decisions, editing news to fit bias is not only damaging to credibility, but also condescending and when the other side is heard, becomes insulting to the average news consumer. The one exception the this rule is Opinion editorial(or op-ed) where the audience knows there is an existant implied bias and listens to hear their opinion expanded upon and what it means to their ideology, great examples are Rush, Sean Hannity, Air America, Bill O'Reilly, Wolf Blitzer, etc.

 

[duretti]

Media cannot be free under capitalism. This is, however, not a nescissary state of affairs.