I’m actually mostly okay with state owned news stations. I think it’s a waste of my taxes (by far my biggest objection) and I won’t trust anything it says, but it can exist if it wants to. I also don’t have a problem with the news companies backing certain political parties or individuals, I just won’t believe what they say.

What I’ve really got a problem with is when the government says what the press as a whole can’t say or has to say. That’s what freedom of the press is supposed to prevent.

If you’ve got freedom of the press, even if the major news networks are corrupt, other players can come in and report what they think the truth is. The big companies don’t like new competitors like this, but that pattern of new companies spawning is what we see (there’s a youtuber I know who reports on geopolitics, and Joe Rogan’s podcast is very big and popular (though admittedly, that’s not an immediate source of breaking news)).

I don’t know that I believe that China has a free press. People there are afraid to speak against their government, but the press is free to do it?