Rupert Murdoch's problems — including possible illegal behavior in the U.K. and the U.S. — won’t go away no matter how hard he tries to cover them up.

On Tuesday,  British authorities released a letter that exposes a massive News Corp. cover-up of illegal phone hacking. This is a serious scandal, but we aren't afraid to have a little fun at Murdoch's expense:  

Today we're launching a game — Whack a Murdoch — that helps you vent your anger about News Corp.

Two weeks ago, Free Press launched Change the Channels, a new campaign to uncover and fight covert consolidation, a practice whereby TV stations outsource their local news operations to their competitors resulting in less local competition and diversity, and sometimes even duplicate newscasts. We dubbed this trend “covert consolidation” because the stations involved often use contractual agreements and backroom deals to get around the FCC’s media ownership laws. But the results can be just as bad as outright consolidation.

We seem to have struck a nerve.

Last year, in his remarks at the Federal Communications Commission workshop on the future of noncommercial media, Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made a provocative statement:  

There is no longer enough private capital — in the form of advertising, subscriptions, philanthropy and other sources — to support the depth and breadth of quality local, national and international news reporting our communities need to participate in a 21st-century democracy.

At the time, the statement was a best guess based on the statistics and trends that were available. The FCC has now released their report on the Information Needs of Communities and in it they spend significant time probing the economics of what we have lost from our media and journalism and how we could begin to fill that gap. The evidence and economic analysis in the FCC report seems to confirm that we are facing a serious gap in financial support for exactly the kind of news we need.  

The Federal Communications Commission released its long-awaited report on the future of media, now re-titled "The Technology and Information Needs of Communities.” The document spans a whopping 450 pages and touches on nearly every aspect of American media. The scope and depth of the report is impressive and the FCC future of media team should be commended for their tireless work on it. 

However, at first glance, there are some glaring problems in key parts of the report that suggest troubling trends for those who care about better news and information for American communities. While the report does highlight a number of promising policy ideas—many proposed by Free Press and our allies—almost all of them are outside the jurisdiction of the FCC. We’ll post more on these policies soon.