Between the country that will throw you in jail for posting funny memes comparing the president to a cartoon bear, and the one where the newspapers are literally running headlines asking if the president has significant memory issues [1], I wonder which has more press freedom.

[1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-mem...

I've lived in China for the past 5+ years. The news here almost feels like instructions on how to feel and what to consider important. A lot of American media is click bait nonsense but the genuine article exists. This article is proof of that.

> I have to draw parallels between US and China here. Who honestly has a more free media

That's easy: the US.

It's not even close, unless you're one of those tankies that blinds themselves to anything bad about nominally socialist countries.

Easy litmus test: critiques of the current government. It's incredibly easy to find very harsh, even incendiary critiques of the current president/administration in the US. Whoever is president will be absolutely lambasted, ridiculed, etc. by different press outlets depending on who's in power. How much can you say that for Chinese press?

Or just look at controversial events like the Tiananmen Square massacre. Huge, recent-ish history that's suppressed and censored by the Chinese government for media and social platforms. Anyone can talk about the US doing horrible shit on Facebook, Reddit, etc all day long and nothing happens.

You could look at the RSF's Press Freedom Index if you want. The US should be doing better than it is at 71 points, but China is at...23: https://rsf.org/en/index

And the US' weaknesses in the index are mostly not about government censorship, but about media company consolidation or rises in partisanship. I wish it was doing better of course, it certainly has room to improve, but comparing it to China of all places as if it's a real question who's better on the issue is completely laughable.

The news here (US) is military propaganda. It's not that sophisticated, but people eat it up. The key to piercing it is knowing a few things about the targeted country.

i.e. read a book

There's positive news?

Positive news = propaganda or state sponsored spin that shed a favorable light on things that suit the ruling class like “our struggles are our strength” not “man saves puppy” necessarily (though possible if fit into the political strategy).

The US wins in both fronts clearly. Their positive news factory is Hollywood and they get people to pay to consume their propaganda.

How is Hollywood a positive news factory? Horrible shit happens in Hollywood or is portrayed by Hollywood all the time.