Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

No News Is Bad News: The Death Dance of Journalism and the Twilight of Democracy
Bill Quigley
20 May 2009
🖨️ Print Article

by Robert McChesney

In this 90 minute address, Dr. Robert McChesney argues that the disappearance of journalism from newspapers and broadcast media marks the twilight of democracy.  Back in the days when Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists started their newspapers, the US Postal Service was mailing them for free.  At the time, newspapers were 90% of post office volume, and accounted for 2% of its income, a massive government subsidy.  Only a massive subsidy --- a stimulus program for journalism, and stripping corporate owners of dozens and hundreds of stations that some of them own, can begin to make real democracy possible.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    POEM: The King Alfred Plan, Gil Scott-Heron, 1972
    10 Sep 2025
    “...white paranoia is here to stay/The white boy's scheming night and day/What you think about the King Alfred Plan?”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopia: National Aspiration, Identity, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
    10 Sep 2025
    “Ethiopia just changed the continent of Africa forever.” - African development economist and electricity activist 
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Department of War: What’s new is so old
    10 Sep 2025
    "Department of War: What’s new is so old" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Tamanisha John
    The Historical and Contemporary Role of Neocolonial Caribbean Governments in Supporting US Militarism and Imperialism in the Region
    10 Sep 2025
    Turning the Caribbean into a US bombing range requires local collaborators. Neocolonial governments have volunteered to play this role, betraying their people's right to peace and sovereignty.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The Second Africa Climate Summit Reveals The New Face of Colonialism; Technocrats and Cryptocolonization (Part 1, The Setting).
    10 Sep 2025
    The Africa Climate Summit is a greenwashing front for a new wave of colonialism. Under the guise of "nature-based solutions," corporations like the Gates Foundation are pushing schemes that will turn…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us