>they take the traditional 20th Century American view of journalism (attempting to be objective and authoritative, and taking accuracy seriously) which is a bit alien to the European print tradition
No (though obviously some are, and its the tabs in particular which aren't particularly bothered about accuracy). But most European newspapers are expressly part of a particular political tradition, and many are openly partisan. In the UK, for example, the Guardian is part of the (social) liberal tradition, the Telegraph is both conservative and Conservative, and the Mirror is aligned with the Labour party. The same overseas: El País is associated with PSOE, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has a Christian Democrat ethos.
None of which is to say that these are bad papers - they aren't. But the idea that you can stand back from partisan politics and report some kind of objective truth is more prevalent in European broadcast media: both the BBC and its private sector competitor ITV News, for example, do not aim for a particular political constituency (though, like the US papers, they're often criticised for their implicit positioning).
what are European newspapers like then? tabloids?