• Public Interest Wins, Corporate Media Lose: Court Overturns FCC Decision to Relax Media Consolidation Rules

    Josh Stearns
    July 7, 2011

    We just scored a huge victory for the public interest.

    Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to weaken its ownership rules and allow big media companies to buy up even more local outlets.

    In 2007, the FCC ignored letters and calls from millions of Americans and tried to change its media ownership rules to allow companies to own both newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market. This change would have given individual companies enormous – and unacceptable – control over your local media in print, on TV, on the radio and even online.

    Free Press and a coalition of public interest organizations challenged the FCC in court, and today the court agreed that the FCC was wrong. The court also upheld all other media consolidation restrictions and told the FCC it needed to do better to support and foster diverse voices in the media – two crucial decisions in the fight to build better media. With very few exceptions, the court squarely rejected the big media companies’ arguments.

    At a time when corporate control of our media and our democracy is spinning out of control, this decision is a vital win.

  • Verizon's Illegal App Blocking

    Josh Levy
    July 6, 2011

    What if your Internet service provider told you what kind of computer you could use and what kind of software you could run on it? Would you stand for it?

  • Google vs. Facebook: Should Human Rights Factor in Your Choice of Social Network?

    Timothy Karr
    July 6, 2011

    Question: What would billionaire Mark Zuckerberg lose by refusing Chinese demands that he censor Facebook? What would he and his company gain from being more principled?

  • So Who Really Stands to Benefit from AT&T’s T-Mobile Takeover?

    Jenn Topper
    July 1, 2011

    Last week, a group of 76 Democrats made a small splash inside the Beltway after they signed a letter touting the alleged benefits of the AT&T-T-Mobile merger for rural communities and workers.

  • My Fight for Net Neutrality

    Daryn Strauss
    June 29, 2011

    Creativity, innovation, and a public that is concerned about the issues affecting them — those are the gifts that net neutrality has given our country.

  • Net Neutrality from the Creators' Perspective

    Michael Winship
    June 28, 2011

    A number of years ago, I was co-producer of a miniseries for the A&E Network called Biography of the Millennium. With the help of viewers, historians and other experts we chose those who were deemed to be the most important and influential people of the thousand years that began in the year 1001 A.D. and ended in the year 2000.

  • The US Congress: Where It Pays to Deceive

    Timothy Karr
    June 28, 2011

    Why are more than 70 House Democrats helping AT&T lie to you?

    They just signed on to an industry letter that was so riddled with misinformation about AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile it’s shocking that anyone would put their name on it.

  • Failed once by consolidation, flooded Minot turns to local TV

    Libby Reinish
    June 27, 2011

    Minot, N.D., became a symbol of the dangers of media consolidation in 2002, when a nearby train derailment released toxic anhydrous ammonia into the air. Minot’s six Clear Channel-owned stations continued to air automated programming while a deadly gas cloud spread across town, killing one person and injuring a thousand.

    Failed once by absentee-owned corporate media,  Minot is today facing another emergency--severe flooding.  But this time, the community is better informed, thanks largely to news coverage by a small, locally owned TV station, KXMC.

  • Happy Anniversary. Love, Verizon.

    Josh Levy
    June 23, 2011

    Almost a year to the day after Verizon announced it would cease offering unlimited mobile data plans, we're being handed a stinker of an anniversary gift in the form of leaked details about Verizon's upcoming data caps.

  • Change the Channels

    Libby Reinish
    June 22, 2011

    Grab your remotes, and get ready to change the channels; there’s a new struggle against increased media consolidation, and chances are it’s coming to your town. In fact, it’s quite possible that TV stations in your own backyard have already consolidated, and you may not even know it’s happened. That’s because media companies have circumvented the Federal Communications Commission’s ownership rules in over 80 markets, quietly shuttering newsrooms at the expense of independent, local journalism.

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