I agree the comparison is taking it too far. But the US model is fascinating. E.g. consider newspapers wishing to be able to report from the White House. Want your journalist to be able to get a good seat? Want them to have a shot at asking questions? Then behave.<p>Want to get access to high ranking officials? Same thing.<p>Instead of throwing anyone in jail it&#x27;s a matter of strangling them of access so competitors gets important information first or gets to be the ones askin their questions.<p>Occasionally it doesn&#x27;t work. Like when a newspaper gets hold of something important enough to be willing to risk their access (such as the Snowden documents). But for tilting the day to day reporting of politics these methods have been honed to a level where they are remarkably effective.