Associated Press reports are carried by almost every news medium.Is this press freedom?

Question

AP is almost monopolizing the media,especially the print media.This is not at all good for the freedom of the press.

Answer 1

It's cheaper for the dailies to use the AP as a wire service than to pay to staff foreign news bureaus. And it is cheaper for AP to use "stringers" in ferreting out and reporting the stories than to send their own employees into the venue of that news story.
That aside, Reuters, Agencie Press Francais (AFP) and a few other news services do provide stories as well. The trouble is that in the U.S. AP is familiar and is considered to be more "American" than the other news services. It all helps in keeping that shroud of ignorance around us so that we don't learn too much about the rest of the world.

Answer 2

If all news media subsisted on AP alone, I might start worrying. But there are so many other news agencies about (Reuters, AFP, Bloomberg, UPI in the US alone, other countries have the PA or dpa, KNA, epd, ddp, Ansa and on and on and on) that you get a good variety. Plus in all the years I've worked with AP stories, I found their service to be well-balanced and unbiased.

I know quite a few people who work for them, and the rules about neutrality they have to follow, so I'm not worried about that at all. What worries me much more is market concentration leading to more and more small papers being bought up, leading to monopolies and less and less variety of opinion.