>>>> Trump points his finger at a CNN reporter and says "you're fake news" and repeatedly attacks the free press....
>>>
>>>While I generally don't care for the rest of this dispute - not my country, and so far hasn't started any new wars - this I see third time today.
>>>
>>>What do you mean with "free" press? Free from what? Free to do what?
>>
>>Bad wording on my part. What I should of been saying was "freedom of the press". -- which basically means it's not censored by the government - a very important part of our democracy.
>
>Well it's still on the basics... while it isn't censored by the government, it's censored by advertisers and anyone with enough money in the game.

That's true. And some things can be censored - for example the government doesn't want the newspapers publish a story with classified material that could harm national security. What is considered national security can be questionable at times, such as the pentagon papers that the Washington Post published regarding the Vietnam War in 1971 (depicted in the new movie "The Post'). And yes there can be pressure from advertisers and news outlet owners on what gets reported and the view point of editorials (think FoxNews). As for the advertisers, I suppose it could lead to problems on the reporting side, but I don't think it encourages 'fake news' ...it holds them more accountable to be accurate. As for the editorial side - well that is going to be skewed somewhere along the line no matter what, hence "editorials". In the long run a system of multiple news agencies with the freedom to cover whatever stories they want is going to be better for the people than a situation where you have one state-run news agency that's run and censored by the government (much to Trump's disgust I'm sure lol)