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


  • Bipartisol and the ailing body politic
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Bipartisol and the ailing body politic
    28 Jun 2023
                                                         
  • BAR Book Forum: Amanda Lock Swarr’s Book, “Envisioning African Intersex”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Amanda Lock Swarr’s Book, “Envisioning African Intersex”
    28 Jun 2023
    This week’s featured author is Amanda Lock Swarr. Swarr is Associate Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington.
  • AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #47
    Black Alliance for Peace US Out of Africa Network
    AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #47
    28 Jun 2023
    Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor Ann Garrison analyzes the continued plunder of the Democratic Republic of Congo by U.S. allies Uganda and Rwanda in the latest Black Alliance for Peace AFRICOM…
  • New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners
    Orisanmi Burton
    New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners
    28 Jun 2023
    The field of medicine is not inherently beneficial. Marginalized people have long been used for experimentation purposes, and the incarceration and surveillance states have participated in…
  • Organizers March on the White House to Say: Take Cuba Off the List!
    Natalia Marques
    Organizers March on the White House to Say: Take Cuba Off the List!
    28 Jun 2023
    Sanctions against Cuba and the designation as a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" create great hardships for the people of that country. Recent actions demanded that Cuba be taken #OffTheList.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us