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.
Last week, we finally saw some federal action against anti-consumer practices in the wireless industry, in the form of legislation in the Senate and an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission.
The second act of the Federal Trade Commission’s production of the latest off-Broadway hit, “Much Ado about the Future of Journalism,” came with a nice plot twist. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) kicked it off yesterday with a commendable soliloquy that pushed the market forces argument out of the spotlight by introducing suggestions for policy changes to promote a “vigorous” free press.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on Tuesday called for policies to help revitalize journalism and keep reporters on the job.
Speaking at a two-day Federal Trade Commission workshop on the state of journalism, Rep. Waxman said that market forces aren’t the only solution to the current crisis – a position argued by News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch on Monday. Rep. Waxman instead described the crisis as a "structural problem," with new polices and tax incentives as part of the remedy.
Rep. Waxman expressed concern about the decline of quality journalism as more news outlets close their doors. "Consolidation of the media business has not helped," Waxman said. "This is a policy issue [and the] government is going to have to be involved in one way or another."
David Westphal is the former Washington Editor for McClatchy Newspapers and joined USC Annenberg as executive in residence. He spoke today at the Federal Trade Commission’s future of journalism workshop. Below are his remarks. Westphal and his colleague Geoffrey Cowan also published an excellent article in the Online Journalism Review today.
Check back at SaveTheNews.org where we'll be posting more commentary and interviews with speakers at the FTC's journalism event.
When Fox News’ Glenn Beck called President Barack Obama a racist this past July, the online advocacy group ColorOfChange.org launched a campaign to convince advertisers to boycott the show. To date, some 285,000 people have joined the effort, and more than 80 companies have pulled their ads.
I’m packing my bags and heading down to Washington, D.C. for the Federal Trade Commission’s two-day workshop on the future of journalism. There are bound to be some useful insights regarding what's next for U.S. media, and we’ll try to capture it all for you at SaveTheNews.org, on Twitter or on Facebook.
Check back for speakers’ remarks, guest blog posts, video interviews and more.
There’s been no shortage of talk lately about Net Neutrality, with everyone from Jon Stewart to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski discussing the future of the Web as we know it.
From news summits to sharing ideas with the Federal Trade Commission, there is a growing national dialogue between citizens, organizations and the government about what can be done to save journalism.
The folks over at The Nation are contributing to the conversation with a new "Future of Journalism" video series. Each week through the end of 2009, The Nation will post a video that showcases an expert suggesting ways that the media system might be fixed, and explaining what he or she believes to be the future of the industry.
If we as a nation don't preserve Network Neutrality at home, we undermine our diplomacy goals and pro-democracy initiatives abroad. So say senior officials at the State Department and the White House, who spoke Thursday at an academic conference organized by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
