The press wants absolute freedom for itself, but it often sides with the actions of the government and the proposals of presidents that take freedom away from individuals, from colleges and universities, from businesses and industries, and from the states. They are zealous defenders of their First Amendment rights, but they ignore the Tenth Amendment, which reserves to the states and to the people those powers not specifically granted to the federal government. And it lets you hear exactly what people have said and the way they said it. Television news is up against the same competitive pressures as all other news businesses-it has to be accurate as well as interesting. Television has made the news more accessible and more immediate.
People turn on the television at night and want to see what happened earlier the same day.
They don't expect to be given an encyclopedic review of each event. They don't expect in-depth analysis in every story. They do understand the limits of television news as well as its unique benefits. There are a number of structural biases built into the media. First, there is the media's natural preference for simple, two-sided debates.