Welcome to the Free Press blog! We post several times a week on everything from Internet access to free speech to media mergers, so check back often to see what we’re up to.
Remember how much you looked forward to your birthday when you were a kid? You’d dream about it months in advance, planning your party, thinking about the friends you’d invite, anticipating how much more grownup you’d feel when you could announce yourself as four or seven or — the Rolls Royce of birthdays — 10.
Maybe you’re feeling a little sad right now. A little verklempt. A little forlorn. You really, really wanted to go to the National Conference for Media Reform but for one reason or another you just couldn’t make it.
Well, put those tear-stained handkerchiefs away, because we’ve prepared live coverage just for people like you.
As a communications student, I've learned a lot about media consolidation. But none of my classes have explored ways to fight back.
That’s why I can’t wait to go to the National Conference for Media Reform, which will be held in Denver on April 5–7. The conference is a place for people with curious minds to tackle big issues — and actually develop some solutions.
On Thursday night, Jon Stewart "interviewed" Rupert Murdoch about the News Corp. mogul's ambitions to buy the Los Angeles Times — and the legal hurdles that stand in the way of this acquisition.
At this April's National Conference for Media Reform, women will be front and center. Many influential feminist voices will be heard throughout the conference, and several sessions will focus specifically on issues impacting women.
The 10-year anniversary of the Iraq war has brought renewed attention to the media’s role in the run-up to the American invasion. By most accounts, nearly all major media outlets failed to do their job in the face of the Bush administration’s falsehood-filled campaign to lead the country into war.
In announcing his departure as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski said: "The last four years have demonstrated that the country needs an effective FCC."
Injustice often operates in secret ways. This has certainly been the case with predatory prison phone rates. But after nearly a decade of advocacy from public interest and civil rights groups, meaningful change is in sight.
In 2003, inmates and their families presented the Wright Petition, which asked the Federal Communications Commission to regulate prison phone rates. The FCC failed to act, so in 2007 the Wright Petitioners submitted an alternate proposal. Last December, the FCC finally invited the public to weigh in.
A recent ProPublica investigation highlighted a network of political action committees that consultants and strategists set up as front groups designed to funnel money back to those who established them.
In the report, which examined PAC expenditures, Kim Barket found that the PACs spent just a small percentage of the money they raised on concrete actions to get candidates elected.
Many of our nation’s leading Latino activists, journalists, artists and media policy advocates will play a key role in the National Conference for Media Reform in Denver on April 5–7.
