How much do you trust your news media? Once upon a time, news was supported only by the number of subscriptions they sold, so their focus was primarily on stories that appealed to the readers. The stories were popular among the majority of people who happened to be working class and poor.
Newspapers that were less popular couldn't get the support of the masses, but they could get more money from thriving businesses, so they changed their stories to those which appealed to the rich business owners in exchange for advertising.
News media regularly avoids reporting scandals about their sponsors, otherwise they would "cook their golden goose." As a show of support for the sponsor in question, other sponsors might boycott the news media.
One day a corporation bought a newspaper outright, and populated it with like-minded editors and reporters. It served as a Public Relations outlet for the corporation, serving only the corporation's own interests, such as advertising for other affiliates of the corporation. This is the main-stream news media we have today.
See: Columbia Journalism Review's guide to what the major media companies own.
See: Who Owns The Airwaves? (FccInfo.com)
See: ABYZ News Links: an index of news sources around the world.
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