Blog

Welcome to the Free Press blog! We post several times a week on everything from Internet access to free speech to media mergers, so check back often to see what we’re up to.

AT&T: More Barriers. In More Devices.
Josh Levy
January 18, 2013

AT&T is caving. Sort of.

When the iPhone 5 launched last year, Apple announced that FaceTime, its video calling application, would now work over mobile networks.

This was great news, especially for people who depend on video calling to communicate. But then AT&T blocked its customers from using FaceTime over its network.
The Movement Dr. Parker Made: Father of Media Reform Turns 100
John Nichols
January 17, 2013
It is entirely reasonable to suggest that the man who initiated what we today understand as a national media reform movement is Dr. Everett C. Parker, the amazing activist who successfully challenged media complicity with the Southern segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s.
Big Media Behaving Badly
Josh Stearns
January 16, 2013

America’s biggest media companies are on a roll this month.

Usually fancy new gadgets — not old-school media giants — are the focus of the Consumer Electronics Show. But this year the talk at CES was all about CBS.

On the last day of the big electronics trade show, the technology site CNET was ready to announce its best-of-show awards. The winning gadget was a new digital video recorder (DVR) made by the satellite company DISH.
It's All About Trust: The Atlantic's Scientology Problem
Josh Stearns
January 15, 2013
On Monday night, the Atlantic presented a Church of Scientology ad dressed up as a news article. Within hours the piece had been removed and replaced with a note from the editors promising to “review their sponsored content guidelines.”
Lifting the Curtain at the Consumer Electronics Show
Josh Levy
January 15, 2013

Last week at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show — better known as CES — tech engineers, journalists, bloggers and fanboys did their usual thing, i.e., they fixated on new toys and gadgets.

Meanwhile, the men behind the curtain — including the chief executives at AT&T and Verizon — were busy making plans for the future of the Internet.
Remembering Aaron Swartz
Josh Levy
January 14, 2013

This weekend, the Internet lost one of its biggest champions.

Aaron Swartz, age 26, died on Friday. The cause was suicide. The loss to his friends, colleagues, fellow activists and the Internet at large is enormous.
Why a Woman Should Lead the FCC
January 10, 2013

The Federal Communications Commission has been around since 1934. And not once has a woman served as chair.
Report Shows How Big Bad Bills Bulldoze Broadband
Josh Levy
January 8, 2013
Here’s a fun experiment: Grab the next person you see and tell her you’re about to talk about tech policy (you know, to prepare her). If she hasn’t screamed, pulled out all of her hair or fled the room, tell her you’re about to take a voyage to strange lands where laws exist that make it harder for people to access the Internet.
Three Media Issues We Can't Ignore in 2013
Josh Stearns
January 8, 2013
We’ve accomplished a lot in 2012, but when it comes to the fight for better media there is always more to do. Here are three critical issues we must tackle in the coming year.
More Warrantless Wiretapping from the U.S. Government
Josh Levy
January 7, 2013

Talk about a crappy present. Before the holidays we warned you that Congress was about to hand us a lump of coal in the form of the FISA Amendments Act.

Well, Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! You got your coal.