Replies instream....

>>>I don't have a high opinion of your press. It is indeed owned by a couple of corporations and are highly influenced by their supported political parties and associated coroporations. Therefore I can't call it independed press. As stated before by others like Dragan and Jim it is more of an entertainment value rather than news and has been highly commercialized. The journalistical value is far down IMO. I remember the interview with Bill Clinton and his snare to the owner of fox (murdoch?) a couple of months ago. Something like that would be unthinkable up here. It outlines again that the political objectives of the media bleed though the news to report.
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>>You're talking out of your butt again, Walter. You don't know squat about the American press. Sure, some of it is better than others, as I am sure is the case "up here." Fox News would be an excellent example. We also have some of the best newspapers and magazines in the world. Anyone who can't stay informed here doesn't want to stay informed.
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>Hmmm, so you're basically saying that dragan who has been roaming accross the globe and jim are wrong as well. How much do you know about the foreign press in lets say brittain, france, Germany or any other eurpean country? If you do not how possibly could you come to that conclusion?

To the extent that Dragan and Jim have trashed the American press in a general sense, yes, I disagree with them.

The only country you mention where I have spent any time was England, where I read the newspapers regularly and watched some BBC as well. The papers ranged from the very, very good -- the Times of London and the Telegraph (despite their conservative spin) -- to the very bad indeed. The Sun, anyone? The Mirror? I don't know about France and Germany and would be, well, talking out of my butt.

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>Everytime I visit north america (Which I do frequently) and watch CNN, FOX and CBS, I laugh my but off, of what you call independed press. And free press? Think again, your press is more than ever regulated by the political parties. Your press has restrictions esspecially in reporting news from iraq. You know our press does report about american press. Does the american press report about european ???
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Please substantiate the claim that the U.S. press is regulated by political parties. Take all the time you like, we'll wait.

>During my worktime in NA, often the TV is tuned to CNN or FOX. One day, there was a news item about a lady who dissapeared a day before her marriage, leaving her fiancee as a suspect. She turned up a couple of days later explaning that she did not want to marry him. While of course dramatic for the persons involved, is it really neccesary to rehash the whole story each hour of the day ?? Isn't there more important news to broadcast ??

The runaway bride. That was a human interest story. It's not all hard news, you know. A woman -- happening to be photogenic -- takes off on the eve of her wedding. Sorry, that's a story. It gets our interest. I mention only in passing that when it turned out she had conconcted the whole kidnapping thing, that was reported as well.

I'll make you a deal. If the leading Dutch newspaper has an English edition, I'll read it for a week and tell you what I think. I am not closeminded. Fair enough?