While I can agree with you that the American press is surely not what it used to be, or started out to be, there are still some media channels that try to offer the true story.

I can assure you that you will not get arrested in the US for talking politics in a bar. You may get shunned by people that don’t agree with you, hell, you may even get in a fight over it (and that may land you in jail), but being arrested for simply talking politics would be a direct violation of the constitution. Any lawyer worth his salt would easily have any charge related to an arrest like that thrown out of court. Not to mention the law suite you would have for false arrest and false imprisonment.

No matter what people tell you in the media, America is still a free country (for now anyway). The government is growing larger – by the day it seems – and our rights are starting to become infringed. However, it’s never too late for the people to take their government back. Government here is supposed to be for the people, by the people, and I believe it will be again.

When I was in the USA, I noticed I could not discuss politics in a bar. It almost got me arrested! Since I spoke about it with some people, I was told “As an American you cannot be against your own country”, nor as a visitor I noticed. I was told about people being visited by the police for questioning, because they shared their opinion on politics in public.

Remember the views of EU’s newspapers by US residents during the Iraq invasion; Americans demanded the read the complete and true news and got it from news sources outside the US. Searching “Propaganda US” gives a nice overview what is published a lot by the US media. The more propaganda in the media, the more it is controlled by the government. So I’m sure #48 is a bit optimistic.

For my own country, the Netherlands, the media has taken power during a weak period of our government, which they don’t want to give back. The media is moreover used as a way to discuss unimportant issues; Media-anarchy to me. Freedom Of Press is possibly a dangerous power, if concentrated and well organized!

Also remember the situation in Italy, where the prime minister runs the media too. The press can criticize anything except politics. Comparable with the US under Bush jr.

So what is freedom of press? You really have to weight “Power of the press” and “Propaganda” too. But can we measure this?

The discussion about the press is important and I hope you write more about it. Or I will.