I was wondering, I've finished the game, explored all there is to explore, bought everything that can be bought and made friends from enemy's and enemy's from friends... twice and vice versa :p
But about the missions/rumors in the bar, is it just all blabla or do they actually have a meaning. Sometimes they say something specific in the bar or on the news like some protected alien artifact site in mahatten, or some ransom that have to be payed/left behind in some debri field. But when I try to follow up that message there is never anything to be found. And I think that's a shame, It could be a nice living universe for you to play on after the singleplayer campaign but if the newsreports are just some random generated text without any dept then i'm afraid i'm done playing.
I have nothing left to do in Freelancer, It's a great game and I hope there will be a lot of mods/campaigns/whatever. But I really hoped that the newsreports are actual reports from stuff going on in the universe.
I tested to see if would generate news about your actions, I flew with my sabre packed with lvl 10 guns/shields to the colorado xeno's base and started blasting away dozens and dozens of xeno's. Even a small army of bounty hunters came to assist me, great battle. But not a word in the news...too bad. :p