"our governements." Of course. The media depends heavily on the...

"our governements."

Of course.
The media depends heavily on the various Government media liason people for their news....
They can "request" that certain journalists write their story in a particular way.......or they are blacklisted from further news releases.....
Thats as old as.
The Govt needs people to be for or against certain things .....and what better way to influence matters than to but a slight (?) bias in news releases.

i remember a few interesting stories in our WA papers about happenings during Gulf War Mk1 .....that emerged a few years later.
One was a journalist's tale of what occurred while covering the Gulf War from Kuwait. If you remember, we seemed to be getting the same news on telly night after night, the same guided bombs hitting the seemingly same targets? That was because there was one "Central Media Room" that provided news for all journalists world wide. And all journos sent their news out from that same venue....or else.
Our guy didnt, and did his own thing......and was subsequently taken out in the desert by a couple of Special Forces, made to kneel in the sand with a pistol to his head, and was told :" There is one source of news only...that distributed through the Central Media Room, there is no other ....You either go through the right channel, or your bones will lie here"....what is it to be? "To the Media Room".... lol.
Fascinating movie stuff & I bet he pooped himself.
I doubt our govt goes to such extremes, but they can no doubt exert pressures.

In WA, many years back there were strong racial sentiments towards Aboriginals in the Goldfields, and the media was restrained from any reportings that would make things worse...

And we know today that things happen that dont seem to make the news.

A real "Free Press" hasnt existed for a long time....it can have its arm twisted.

GZ