Corporate and governmental transparency and accountability are vital to a functioning democracy. This is especially the case in an era when so much money is being traded for political influence in the United States.
If you don't know how power works in this country — and you aren’t allowed to see the financial interests that often lurk behind prominent political voices — it's next to impossible to make meaningful decisions at the polls.
The problem of financial ties between government and corporate special interests is prevalent in the media realm, where Federal Communications Commission regulators and congressional staff routinely leave the public sector for high-paying jobs as corporate media lobbyists and public relations flacks.
Moreover, some of the most powerful broadcast companies are fighting efforts to make them better disclose the flood of money they pocket to air political attack ads during election cycles.
Without true transparency and accountability, the media’s traditional role as democracy’s guardian of the truth is deeply compromised. Free Press is active on several fronts to expose the financial interests that corrupt policymaking — and to demand accountability to the public in a media system that’s awash with conflicts of interest.
