Oh yes..and one more thing Daniel. The day MSNBC goes after Obama for being too liberal will be the first day....

The only difference between MSNBC, and FOX? Viewers....only the most hardcore left of center voters seem to show MSNBC any loyalty.

In Canada or the UK, public broadcasters tend to be neutral and left of center. I don't quarrel with their political stance, I watch both but I do object being told I must fund them as if THEY are somehow the only credible news sources on the dial. In the USA, publically funded PBS exists, but they get their own donations, and survive on that basis. FOX, MSNBC, the big 3 Networks and CNN offer various slants on news, and anyone from Michael Moore to Rush Limbaugh can find a place to get their news, and while I may not always like the slant, at least figure out what the hell is going on.

In most countries, private media takes this responbility seriously. IN any democratic society, media is often flowing back and forth looking for a unique audience. No one network is going to corner all the viewers, and that leaves opportunity for other voices. If you are a Labour supporter in the UK, I am sure someone will be advocating your political slant with his news broadcast if there was no BBC. Just like someone will be spouting off the Tory line or maybe something in the middle. In America, the only reason Fox gets ripped, is because for many years, the media made a big show of pretending they didn't have a bias, and the reality is a lot of excellent books have pointed out there was a bias in TV media in the US all along, some of it going both ways. FOX just has been a little more obvious, and people reacted. They are the number one network in the US because most of the others have tried to occupy the left to mushy middle of the political spectrum, and outside of the odd voice on CNN, conservative commentators were all driven out. Beck was a CNN guy. Tucker Carlson ( a knob to be sure) was CNN. George Will is never on with another Conservative on ABC, and he and John Stossel were the only conservatives on that network. Stossel is more libertarian anyhow and is on Fox, along with Geraldo, and Alan Colmes, two guys who are NOT in any way conservative. Ditto for Juan Williams...

In short, the Americans have proven you cover the political spectrum in media quite easily in a free society without government controlled broadcasters. In a nation where free speech is supposed to be treasured, in media saturation I would argue the US has media voices all over the spectrum.