In theory, democracy in the United States benefits from a vigor-
ous marketplace of ideas created by an energetic "free press."
The press is supposed to enhance democracy both by stimulating
the citizenry's political interest and by providing the specific in-
formation they need to hold government accountable. But Amer-
ica's "free press" cannot be free. Restricted by the limited tastes
of the audience and reliant upon political elites for most infor-
mation, journalists participate in an interdependent news sys-
tem, not a free market of ideas. In practice, then, the news media
fall far short of the ideal vision of a free press as civic educator
and guardian of democracy.

Despite their institutional shortcomings, the news media do
influence politics significantly. This book weaves an explana-
tion of the media's simultaneous dependence and strength into a
theory of news, public opinion, and democracy in the United
States. The theory explains how the media can wield the power
to alter public policy and cripple presidencies--yet cannot harness
that power to serve democratic citizenship and promote govern-
ment accountability as free press ideals demand.

Four paradoxes in the press's performance challenge any faith
that competition in a free market of ideas nourishes democracy.
The first emerges from the burgeoning, over the past twenty
years or so, of a large variety of new video and print media out-
lets. ¹ The media--both the print and electronic press ² --are as free
as ever; more competitors jam the "idea marketplace" than ever.

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