International Herald Tribune: American establishment media or not?

There's no shortage of criticism of establishment MSM out there, especially in the Unitied States.

To give you a flavour, here's American International Herald Tribune reader Jim Freeman http://politicalcrank.blogspot.com/2008/01/stuff-american-media-isnt-going-to-tell.html on the situation and his recommended reading list that includes the IHT:

The International Business Editor of the Telegraph-UK has more of interest to say about the state of the world economy than anything to be found 'from sea to shining sea.'

American media--corporate owned, corporate directed and on the tightest of leashes, isn't going to give us a fair gallop for the safety of our personal money before we're shot out of the saddle. For god's sake, don't tell Americans they've been defrauded by their banks and government--it might slow the spending at Wal-Mart.

We are historically the last to be told. Now, that (supposed) bastion of independent financial news, The Wall Street Journal (with all its quirks and prejudices) has fallen to the family rivalry and temptation that ultimately takes down every private financial enterprise--greed. No one with a brain ever mistook Rupert Murdoch for a white horse.

So do yourself and your bank account a favor and check in from time to time with
The Times of London
Euro Tribune
The International Herald Tribune
The Economist

Not to put down the American papers, but then--on the other hand--what the hell, why not?

Two things of interest:

• He doesn't seemed concerned that the IHT is owned by the NYT, and that much of its content comes from the NYT
• He perceives the IHT as independent of the NYT.

The latter can only be guaranteed if the following conditions apply:
a) The IHT is given sufficient resources to finance its own news and investigative journalism, independent of the NYT;
b) The IHT is not told to become the International NYT;
c) The IHT invests in writing its own editorials independent of the Manhattan Centric viewpoint of the NYT.