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New Report Shows Big-Money Politics and Broadcast Media Are Undermining Democracy

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FreePress.net - Jan. 26 (Special Report) - On Thursday, Free Press released Citizens Inundated, a report that follows the money trail from big-spending political donors to the bank accounts of the nation's largest broadcast companies.

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Wikipedia, Reddit To Shut Down Sites Wednesday To Protest Proposed Stop Online Piracy Act

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 17 (News Analysis) - Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia and sixth most visited site in the world, will join websites like the content aggregator Reddit to "go dark" on Wednesday in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its companion bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), which are currently being debated in Congress. "What these bills propose are new powers for the government and also for private actors to create, effectively, blacklists of sites that allegedly are engaging in some form of online infringement and then force service providers to block access to those sites," says Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "What we would have is a situation where the government and private actors could censor the net."

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“Internet Censorship Affects Everybody”: Rebecca MacKinnon on the Global Struggle For Online Freedom

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 17 (News Analysis) - As protests mount against two controversial internet anti-piracy bills moving through Congress, we speak with Rebecca MacKinnon, author of the forthcoming book, “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom.” “If we want democracy to survive in the internet age, we really need to work to make sure that the internet evolves in a manner that is compatible with democracy,” MacKinnon says, “And that means exercising our power, not only as consumers and Internet users and investors, but also as voters to make sure that our digital lives contain the same kind of protections of our rights that we expect in physical space.” She argues that for every empowering story of the internet's role, there are many more about the quiet corrosion of civil liberties by companies and governments. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Media Consolidation – The Illusion of Choice

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

owni.eu - Jan. 16 (Special Report) - How much choice does the mainstream US media really offer? An infographic laying out the extent of media consolidation in the US, where just six media giants control 90% of all TV, news, radio and film.

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Ex-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Media Consolidation, Broadband Expansion, Threats to Journalism

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 12 (Interview) - Michael Copps served two terms with the Federal Communications Commission. Now the staunch supporter of an open internet and opponent of media consolidation has retired. In a wide-ranging discussion, he examines the FCC's key accomplishments and failures of the past decade. Copps argues broadband is "the most opportunity-creating technology perhaps in the history of humankind," and laments that the United States still lacks a national broadband infrastructure. He says the FCC has yet to address a lack of diversity in media ownership, noting that "owning a station has a lot to do with the kind of programing that is going to be on that station." Regarding the future of journalism, Copps calls on the FCC to make access to quality journalism a "national priority," saying, "the future of our democracy hinges upon having an informed electorate."

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SHOCK: Meet The New Face Of San Francisco's Most Liberal Talk Radio Station

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Jan. 06 (News Report) - When listeners of Bay Area progressive talk radio station Green 960 tuned into to host Stephanie Miller's weekday morning drive-time radio program on Wednesday, they...

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Fox News Is the 1%

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Robert Greenwald:, Ed Schultze - Nov. 18 (Opinion) - video

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Ex-New York Times Freelancer Natasha Lennard on Quitting the Corporate Media in an Occupy Era

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - We speak with former freelancer at the New York Times, Natasha Lennard, who helped the newspaper cover the initial Occupy protests. She was arrested during the Brooklyn Bridge demonstration while reporting on the event. She no longer freelances for the Times and recently wrote a piece for Salon.com titled "Why I Quit the Mainstream Media." [includes rush transcript]

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Steve Jobs: Fox News 'A Destructive Force In Our Society'

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Oct. 26 (Review) - Steve Jobs told Rupert Murdoch that Fox News was a "destructive force in our society," according to the blockbuster biography of the late Apple CEO. Poynter was the first to uncover Jobs' blunt words about the network in Walter Isaacson's new book.

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Reuters Draws Fire For Occupy Wall Street Story

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jack Mirkinson - Oct. 14 (News Analysis) - Reuters is drawing heavy criticism -- including from some of its own journalists -- for an article which attempts to connect the Occupy Wall Street...

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"News For All The People": Juan González & Joseph Torres On the Epic Story of Race & the U.S. Media

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Joseph Torres - Oct. 13 (News Analysis) - which serves democracy best?" González says. "It turns out that in those periods of time when the government has opted for a decentralized or autonomous system, democracy has had a better opportunity to flourish, racial minorities have been able to be heard more often and to establish their own press. In those periods of the nation’s history when policies have fostered centralized news and information, that’s when dissident voices, racial minorities, marginalized groups in society are excluded from the media system."

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Taken to Task: Occupy Wall Street’s Nattering Nabobs of Negativity

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

finance.yahoo.com - By Aaron Task - Oct. 07 (News Analysis) - Most of the mainstream press coverage so far has been dismissive of the protests and, in some cases, downright patronizing. "SERIOUSLY?" CNN's Erin Burnett asked mockingly after finding one protester who didn't know the government made money on the Wall Street bailout. Burnett is taking a lot of heat in the blogosphere for her piece, and rightfully so. As a Goldman Sachs alum, you'd think Burnett would know there's a heavy price to pay for moral hazard, not to mention the Fed's zero interest rate policy and ongoing subsidy of Wall Street, as well as the taxpayer-funded bailouts of AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. There's also the issue of America's loss of moral authority and the damage done to the Anglo-Saxon model: After years of telling other countries not to bail out their bad banks, we found that advice is much easier to give than to take.

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How Is Occupy Wall Street Not Like The Tea Party? (VIDEO)

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Oct. 06 (Comedy News) - "So, rage against duly elected government is patriotic -- quintessentially American -- whereas rage against multi-national shareholder-accountable corporations is anti-American. OK, gotcha," Stewart said.

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Fox Continues To Fabricate Obama Administration Bullying

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Sep. 27 (Fact Check) - On its Fox Nation website, Fox accused the Obama administration of "pressur[ing]" the Ford Motor Co. to pull a television ad promoting the fact that the company didn't take advantage of the auto bailout. However, Ford and the White House have both denied the allegation, with Ford saying it pulled the ad because the ad's campaign had ended.

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Fox News Allows Hate Group to Participate in GOP Debate

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Sep. 23 (News Report) - Almost 20,000 questions were submitted for Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate, but Fox News picked the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a designated hate group, to ask the first question on immigration.

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9 Policies Conservatives Were For Long Before They Were Against Them

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Sep. 22 (News Analysis) - Journalist Steve Benen noted that while "the record here may be inconvenient for the right ... it's also unambiguous: the mandate Republicans currently hate was their idea." It was championed by the Heritage Foundation ... Nixon embraced it in the 1970s, and George H.W. Bush kept it going in the 1980s. For years, it was touted by the likes of John McCain, Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Chuck Grassley, Bob Bennett, Tommy Thompson, Lamar Alexander, Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Judd Gregg, and many other ... notable GOP officials.

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Economists Shut Out of Debt-Ceiling Debate

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - Sep. 22 (News Analysis) - Of the 1,258 guest appearances during segments that discussed the issue in the month leading up to the debt deal, only 52 -- or 4.1 percent -- were made by economists.

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Big Media Blacks-Out Wall Street Protests

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Will Bunch - Sep. 21 (News Analysis) - Apparently for editors in their plush 8th Avenue skyscraper, the Wall Street Day of Rage is not among the news that the New York Times considers fit to print (emphasis on the word "print" ... more on that aspect in a second). Instead, since as many as 2,000 demonstrators against Wall Street and government corruption first crowded into Manhattan's Zuccotti Park on Saturday (the numbers have dwindled since then), the metro section of the Times has gone wild with the imminent closing of the orginal Ray's Pizza as well as the looming disappearance of parking meters(maybe the Gray Lady is just selling nostalgic to newspapers' graying audience?) The Times isn't unique, though. There don't seem to have been any print articles in the Washington Post, either, and my sense is that television news coverage - even on "liberal" MSNBC - has been non-existent or less-than-minimal at best.

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When Did CNN Become a Shill for GOP Extremism and the Tea Party?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Adele M. Stan - Sep. 12 (Opinion) - CNN, once known for its unflinching coverage of actual news events, last night decided to become a maker, not a chronicler, of news. When the cable news network decided to partner with the Tea Party Express for a debate among the Republican presidential candidates, it cast aside any ethical concerns a news organization might have about direct involvement in elections and active engagement in altering the dynamics of a political party.

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It's Not Phone Hacking That Will Kill News Corp in the US

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Emily Bell - Aug. 20 (Opinion) - News narratives are strange things; the expectation that News Corp will crash to the ground in the US, with the right story at the right time, is not going to be fulfilled. The multitude of pressures in the UK and growing problems unrelated to the hacking scandal in the US might well yet combine to see a much slower but nevertheless devastating effect on the heart of the empire.' Emily Bell, Guardian UK

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How the Head of Fox News Is Making Americans More Right-Wing, More Ignorant and Ever More Terrified

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tim Dickinson - Aug. 10 (News Analysis) - Even his boss Rupert Murdoch is afraid of Roger Ailes. At the Fox News Chrismas party the year the network overtook arch-rival CNN in the cable ratings, tipsy employees were herded down to the basement of a midtown bar in New York. As they gathered around a television mounted high on the wall, an image flashed to life, glowing bright in the darkened tavern: the MSNBC logo. A chorus of boos erupted among the Fox faithful. The CNN logo followed, and the catcalls multiplied. Then a third slide appeared, with a telling twist. In place of the logo for Fox News was a beneficent visage: the face of the network's founder. The man known to his fiercest loyalists simply as "the Chairman" – Roger Ailes. "It was as though we were looking at Mao," recalls Charlie Reina, a former Fox News producer. The Foxistas went wild. They let the dogs out. Woof! Woof! Woof! Even those who disliked the way Ailes runs his network joined in the display of fealty, given the culture of intimidation at Fox News. "It's like the Soviet Union or China: People are always looking over their shoulders," says a former executive with the network's parent, News Corp. "There are people who turn people in."

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The Battle For Egypt's Media: Video Report On Press Freedom After The Revolution

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Sharif Abdel Kouddous - Aug. 08 (News Report) - The Egyptian revolution can count a number of huge successes: most notably, ousting former president, Hosni Mubarak, from power and putting him on public trial. But the revolution is far from over. The struggle for governmental reform, civil liberties and economic and social justice is being waged everyday. And there is one issue that affects all others: the media. Whether it is newspapers, television, radio or the Internet, the media is a central component of the revolution in Egypt. And while the press has opened up in a number of ways in the wake of the revolution, it is still very much an uphill battle. Journalists still face government repression and state media still largely acts as a government mouthpiece. Democracy Now! correspondents Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have been looking at the issue of media reform in Egypt. They filed this video report from Cairo.

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Mainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack On Republicans

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Thom Hartmann - Aug. 07 (News Analysis) - Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence? “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”

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Pressure on James Murdoch Is Poised to Intensify

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Don Van Natta Jr., Graham Bowley, Jo Becker - Jul. 24 (News Report) - After his testimony in Parliament was challenged by two former senior employees and referred by a lawmaker to Scotland Yard for investigation, James Murdoch has come under rising pressure in Britain’s phone hacking scandal that is likely to intensify this week.

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Hacking Testimony Is Disputed

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Cassell Bryan Low, Paul Sonne, Steve Stecklow - Jul. 22 (News Report) - Two former executives broke ranks with News Corp. for the first time on Thursday over whether James Murdoch knew in 2008 that the phone-hacking scandal at the company's now-defunct U.K. tabloid likely involved more than just one rogue reporter, as the company had long maintained.

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