>I'm not familiar with your political system, but if you have one, how could you possibly know that your news is not influenced by it through the broadcaster or its employees?

C'mon, Jay. It **IS** possible, you know. In fact it was largely exactly that way in your own country until the media barons/corps realized that they could get much more of what they wanted, along with a whole lot more profit overall, by pandering to "popular opinion", then actually shaping it to suit their needs.

I think that our news broadcasts in Canada are, by and large, fairly "balanced" and objective. I can't say the same of the U.S. news in general, that's for sure. I'm sure that Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow and such have a real hard time with what passes a "news" there today.

cheers

>
>>Well, you really need to talk to the journalists making the TV broadcasts to have the final answer, but the decision what to list on the news is not by any means determined by any political influence at all. It is determined by the importance and significance for the average dutch viewer (what ever the exact criteria might mean). Again, no influence from any party who might have any interest in controlling the news. The TV news is totally independed (except financially) from anyone.