Corporate Media & Consolidation

Who'll Unplug Big Media? Stay Tuned

Robert W. McChesney & John Nichols

The media reform movement has made a few inroads, but there's still a long way to go.
Not Your Father's FCC

Michael J. Copps : Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

As we struggle for media democracy, let's take encouragement from the early actions of the FCC.
The Other Side of the McCain Lobbyist Scandal

Jerold M. Starr : John McCain

A Pittsburgh public television activist explains how McCain broke the rules while doing the bidding of a media mogul.
McCain and the Media

Robert Scheer : Journalists & Journalism

It's absurd for the New York Times to cast him as a tool of corporate media, when he's been in the forefront of trying to rein it in.

2007

Stop the Media Grab

: Journalists & Journalism

If FCC chairman Kevin Martin prevails, Americans will be stuck with one-size-fits-all media and a downsized democracy.
Google: Search and Data Seizure

Jeffrey Chester : Internet & New Media

Google's bid to acquire DoubleClick will make it the most powerful player in interactive marketing on the planet. But it poses threats to our privacy, politics and democratic aspirations for the Internet.
All Rupert, All the Time

Eric Alterman : Wall Street Journal

Will Rupert Murdoch's play to own and operate the Wall Street Journal have a silver lining for liberals?
This Space for Sale

Barbara Ehrenreich : Media Analysis

The Philadelphia Inquirer is planning to run an editorial column sponsored by Citizens Bank. What's next--the Phillip Morris column on health issues?
Class War in Conrad's Court

Naomi Klein : Canada

The jury selection for the trial of a Canadian press baron accused of looting shareholder earnings reveals popular discontent with the corporate elite.
TNR's New Owners

Clint Hendler : Publishing Industry

No matter what you think of The New Republic's politics, the public sphere will suffer if the magazine becomes homogenized by its new corporate owner.
Media Reform's Moment

: Internet & New Media

The time is right to upend big media's agenda.

2006

Crisis at Libération

K.A. Dilday : Journalists & Journalism

Beset with financial woes, a labor-management power struggle and an aging leftist readership, the legendary French newspaper is on the brink of extinction.
The Death of News

Nicholas von Hoffman : Journalists & Journalism

In cities across America, reporters are being laid off, TV stations are cutting back coverage and the newspaper industry is crumbling to dust. When it all shakes out, will Wikipedia be as good as it gets?
The End of Times?

Eric Alterman : Journalists & Journalism

Journalism's in crisis, crushed by Wall Street and tarnished by a failure of nerve. As newspapers die and fake news proliferates, who will provide reliable information vital to a functioning democracy?
What's Wrong With this Picture?

Kristal Brent Zook : Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

FCC commissioners heard testimony in New York this week about how media consolidation stifles diversity, grassroots community and the creativity of independent musicians and artists.
The FCC Scandal

John Nichols : Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

It's official: Revelations that the FCC suppressed reports on the danger of media consolidation prove the agency is overwhelmingly biased in favor of big media.
A Ten-Point Plan for Media Democracy

Jeffrey Chester : Internet & New Media

With Congress poised to pass legislation that rewrites the Telecom Act, here are ten action items for a media reform agenda.
The National Entertainment State, 2006

After a decade of strategic mergers, impulsive couplings and messy divorces--the birth of new media--this chart shows that national media landscape still bears the oversized footprints of a handful of giant corporations.
The Death of News

Mark Crispin Miller : Journalists & Journalism

The press that once went hoarse over Monica Lewinsky's dress is largely silent over the Bush regime's vast abuses of power.
Mega-merger Mania

Eric Klinenberg

Americans overwhelmingly oppose media consolidation, but the FCC is poised to further relax media ownership rules.
Bush World

Lakshmi Chaudhry

In the guise of giving us what we want, media giants have created a culture defined by untrammeled greed, the worship of power and a ruthless disregard for the public good.
Use the Tools

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga : Internet & New Media

The fight over media consolidation is anachronistic. Progressives should focus instead on mastering the tools of new media--it's here, not in the corporate boardroom, where the new media wars will be fought and won.
Stealth Media

Ana Marie Cox

Corporations used to disguise their attempts to masquerade as "indie," but now they've become invisible to the naked eye.
Local Media Left Behind

Ethan Michaeli

National media are increasingly catering to the highly mobile, globalized, mostly white middle class, leaving those who can't afford access to slip into a separate and unequal world of second-class information.
Digital Music Revolution

Paul D. Miller : Internet & New Media

The music industry lives in fear of downloadable media, but artists have the vision to re-engineer our collective psyche.
The Self-Expression Sector

Rebecca MacKinnon : Internet & New Media

New forms of participatory media have changed public discourse, enabling people to publish, share and disseminate their own media creations. But will only the affluent be able to play?
Co-opting Consumers of Color

Makani Themba-Nixon : Race, Ethnicity & Religion

Fewer minority-owned outlets means fewer minorities in the media. With such threats to public discourse, what will become of our voices, points of view and interests?
Fight for a Free Press

Robert W. McChesney : 1st Amendment

The collapse of journalism and the rise of commercialism is sparking a reform movement that will fight to ensure the First Amendment endures in the digital age.
Access of Evil

Amy Goodman : Media Analysis

Compliant coverage of the Iraq War proved the news business is morally compromised, no longer driven by creative people with something to tell but by global corporations with something to sell.
Brave New Media

Robert Greenwald : Internet & New Media

We don't need to buy a network to get our message out--just creatively use an array of low-cost tools from the Internet to iPods, cellphones and whatever comes next.
The National Entertainment State (Forum)

Internet & New Media

If the promise of new media is to be fulfilled, progressives must chart a course of activism that confronts the increasing concentration of ownership among the Big Media powerhouses.
Key House Panel Votes to Kill Community TV

Jeff Chester

A key House committee--with the support of many Democrats--has approved a measure that eliminates the last remaining government policy insuring local oversight on communications companies.