Is there 'free speech' in US news sources?

No. There is very little 'free speech" in US newspapers and mainstream internet news sources.

In fact, the US comes in at 49th in the world in regard to freedom of speech in its newspapers.

I would say that even the New York Times does not show freedom of speech. For example, the NY Times has many political biases (prejudices or orientations - likes/dislikes). It tends to write good stories about Democratic politicians, even if these politicians are corrupt (dishonest).

Recently one of the most corrupt Democratic politicians in history was arrested by the US Government. Everyone in NY State knew that Sheldon Silver was a corrupt guy, but you never read any articles in the NY Times about this.  There are several corrupt Democratic politicians who are left alone by the NY Times. (Interestingly, the NY Post seems to be the paper that attacks corrupt politicians the most.) In the article below, however, it seems that the NY Times no longer likes Obama and is very critical of him.

So although this article states that the amount of freedom newspapers have is limited because of Obama's policies, I would argue that the newspapers themselves are often corrupt and dishonest and they often do not present the news fairly or objectively.

Here's an article about the lack of freedom of speech in the USA.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/12/u-s-drops-49th-world-press-freedom-rankings-second-lowest-ever/

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

drops to 49th - they had a higher ranking but fell

worst ranking since Obama became president - they seem to imply that Obama is trying to control the news in the USA

to abridge - to shorten or hurt (in this case)

fared even worse - did even worse

banning - prohibiting; so Israel killed foreign journalists and stopped other Israelis from going on TV to complain about all the children being killed by Israel in a war

cited - indicated

persecution - if someone is persecuted, he is unfairly or illegally attacked. Jim Risen had received secret information from someone in the government about Iran's nuclear program and Risen published this information. Obama wanted Risen to tell the government the name of the person in the US government who gave Risen the information. Risen would not.  The government threatened to throw him in jail but dropped matters completely instead. So this wasn't really a 'persecution.'

an arrest - when the police take someone to the police station for a supposed crime

to plummet - to drop quickly

scathing - harsh

a denunciation - an attack against something felt to be wrong

eroded - worn away, slowly gotten rid of something

leaks - when secret information is given to journalists

a precedent - an example from before

echoed - reinforced, repeated

------------------

My book: http://www.amazon.com/York-Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS