> The main reason Western media doesn't much criticize the actual policies is because it's "boring" and doesn't generate advertising revenue. It has nothing to do with whether they're allowed to or not.
I disagree that it's because the public doesn't care, but you're close that it's related to revenue. The problem isn't government censorship. The problem is corporate bias. News networks are owned by giant conglomerates and it's bad for business to criticise your sponsors. I won't dive into a long tirade on the military industrial complex in the US, but suffice it to say that (just on the topic of war) all of the mainstream news outlets are funded by giant defense contractors. Speaking out against war would be bad for business.
The most scary part is that mainstream media has very significant control over the Overton window, meaning that even if the public distrusts the media the debate can still be framed by them. It's very difficult to discuss anti-establishment politics without sounding like a conspiracy theorist -- even though mainstream media ran a conspiracy theory for almost two years (RussiaGate).
> Instead, they criticize the politicians themselves (particularly Trump, right now).
Almost all of the criticisms of Trump resort to one of three things:
1. Personal criticisms such as sex scandals, how much he plays golf, etc.
2. Criticisms of being too soft on Russia (even though the exact opposite is true in terms of US policy -- with most US actions being significantly against Russian interests and more hawkish than the days of Obama and Bush).
3. Minor political disagreements or scuffles.
None of these are actually serious issues, and are just spending time getting the public outraged over nonsense. The newly-found discussions of impeachment are a valuable discussion to have, but the past two years have been completely disconnected from reality.
How long did news networks run stories that Trump vetoed a bill passed in Congress to end the US war in Yemen (a war that was already illegal)[1]? Less than a few days, and then it was full steam ahead on other less important topics. The US has been committing war-crimes for decades and I think it's insane to argue that the public wouldn't care about it if they were being told about it.
When the media does talk about policies, they have insanely corporate biases. Every discussion of medicare-for-all in the US is dominated by discussions of "how much will it cost" (it will be cheaper overall), "what about people who love their health insurance provider" (those people don't exist -- people love their doctors, not their health insurance), "it cannot work in the US" (even though it works in rest of the developed world, and the US already has medicare), and so on. No meaningful discussion and reporting of the massive problems with the current health insurance industry and how it must be reformed, or how the US's healthcare system is among the worst in the developed world.
[1]: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/04/17/trumps-...