‘Gigi Sohn Has Faced Relentless Smear Campaigns, Some Funded by the Telecom Industry’
“Senate Democrats…have been pretty slow to stand up and speak out and condemn these attacks for what they are.”
‘We Need to Mobilize People Who Don’t Want to Pay Tucker Carlson’s Salary’
“A lot of the policies that have been put in place seem really backward; they take choice out of the hands of consumers—whether it’s choice for an internet connection, whether it’s a choice for the type of cable stations that you subscribe to—and they put them in the hands of these large companies, who have far too much control over the ways that we connect and communicate.”
Cable Monopoly’s Gain Is Community Media’s Loss
Critics have rightly argued that if the merger is approved, customers will experience less choice and higher cable bills as a result of increasing media monopolization. What tends to fly under the radar in this debate are further dangers that disproportionately impact underserved communities.
Sarah Jaffe on NY Charter Schools, Carla Murphy on FCC Diversity Study
Coverage of the “tug of war” between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo over charter schools tells us more about political alliances than it does about education. And what’s the real story behind the right’s claim that the White House was planning to send government monitors into newsrooms?
Muzzling Critics—or Building Media Democracy?
Ecuador’s media law represents something more complex than an attempt to bully critics. The Organic Communications Law attempts to treat the news media like a public good or service, with regulations intended to benefit citizens. It calls on each outlet to develop a code of ethics, calls for swift correction of errors, and requires national outlets to have ombudsmen to deal with public complaints.
With a la Carte Cable, Pay for What You Watch
Why can’t I just pay for the channels I actually want? That idea—usually called a la carte pricing—has been mentioned for years as an easy answer to runaway costs. And given how people tend to consume media, it holds a certain appeal.
Mark Cooper on e-book price fixing; Milton Allimadi on Gil Noble
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin041312 Mark Cooper and Milton Allimadi @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin041312.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The Justice Department has sued Apple and five major book publishers for colluding to fix prices e-book prices, in an attempt to undermine competitor Amazon. What should you know about the suit and its broader implications for, say the music and […]
Glenn Greenwald on NDAA, Corynne McSherry on SOPA
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin010612 Glenn Greenwald and Corynne McSherry @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin010612.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: President Obama’s signing of a defense bill including authorization for the indefinite detention of terror suspects–including U.S. citizens– has been condemned by leading civil liberties voices. But the outrage has been somewhat obscured by a general confusion about what the bill […]
Joe Torres on News for All the People, Amy Alexander on Uncovering Race
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin122311 Joe Torres and Amy Alexander @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin122311.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin, a special look at race and people of color in U.S. journalism. Told quickly it’s a story about under representation and exclusion, of bias… and of breakthroughs. And all along, recognition that the stories news media tell us about the world […]
Jamilah King on the digital divide, John Knefel on OWS arrests
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin121611 Jamilah King and John Knefel @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin121611.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Few deny anymore that internet access is becoming critical to taking part in political and economic life. So, what does it matter that research shows that higher proportions of African Americans and Latinos than white people are achieving that access through […]
Media Justice and the 99 Percent Movement
The democratization of media-making tools, particularly an open and unfettered Internet, made the Occupy movemnet possible. Right now, though, this open access is under threat.
Media Monopoly Revisited
The introduction of the original 1983 edition of The Media Monopoly, Ben Bagdikian’s classic investigation of media consolidation, concluded: “When 50 men and women, chiefs of their corporations, control more than half the information and ideas that reach 220 million Americans, it is time for Americans to examine the institutions from which they receive their […]
David Swanson on military budget, Aram Roston on Bloomberg
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin021811 David Swanson and Aram Roston @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin021811.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The federal budget is big news this week, but while your hearing all the calls for cuts, cuts and more cuts, ask yourself, what isn’t considered an acceptable target for substantive reductions? Here’s a hint: it accounts for more than half […]
Tangling the Net
At a time dominated by headlines about the economy and ultra-partisan politics, a critical debate has been kept out of the spotlight—though its consequences could alter American social, political, economic and cultural life for decades. On December 21, the Federal Communications Commission voted to enact controversial “net neutrality” rules establishing new federal oversight of Internet […]
Suing Your Readers for Spite and Profit
Righthaven LLC has emerged from the ongoing meltdown of the newspaper industry with a new business model: sue the hell out of every person who reprints, in part or in full, any article without the express consent of the article’s copyright owner. From March through November 2010, Righthaven has filed over 160 suits against individual […]
Jemima Pierre on Haiti, Megan Tady on TV Wars
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The network camera crews have mostly packed up and gone home, but the political fights over reconstruction and rebuilding in Haiti are only just getting started. University of Texas professor Jemima Pierre was part of a delegation that recently visited Haiti, and she wrote about what she saw for […]
Inside the TV Wars
The real fight to watch isn’t on television—Conan vs. Leno, Olbermann vs. O’Reilly. Rather, it’s about television, and the future of online video—a fight that pits cable and content companies against consumers. Instead of being glued to our favorite shows, we’d be wise to pay attention to the various battles, mergers and backroom deals happening […]
The Wright Stuff
Robert Wright, the CEO of NBC, spoke at the National Press Club on January 24, providing a revealing glimpse into the thinking of one of the people at the top of the TV industry. One surprise was that for someone in such a powerful position, he sure does feel sorry for himself. Here’s a sample: […]
Putting the Public Back in Public Media
For most Americans, “public broadcasting” means the local PBS affiliate. But there’s another kind of non-commercial media that’s established by the government: public access channels. PEG (Public, Educational and Governmental) channels, as they’re officially known, are created by agreements between municipalities and cable companies: In exchange for getting access to lay their cable through public […]
Right-Wing Witch Hunt Reaches FCC
When the Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission underwent its first hearing by the House oversight committee on September 17, the agenda largely centered on FCC chair Julius Genachowski’s upcoming broadband plan and net neutrality—yet before it was over, a Republican representative from Oregon felt compelled to examine the Commission’s new associate general counsel and chief […]
