Comments on: What the Media Reformistas Really Want

By: Understanding the Cyber-Collectivist Threat to Our Media Freedoms - Oklahoma Online

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:29:09 +0000

[...] And they are not the only ones. Worse yet, as I pointed out in my previous essay here, these reformistas now have an audience with the Obama Administration. They are regularlyinvited to testify before the [...]

By: » Understanding the Cyber-Collectivist Threat to Our Media Freedoms - Big Government

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:03:07 +0000

[...] yet, as I pointed out in my previous essay here, these reformistas now have an audience with the Obama Administration. They are regularly invited to testify before [...]

By: Two Very Troubling Anti-Media Freedom Books

Two Very Troubling Anti-Media Freedom Books — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:43:05 +0000

[...] regulatory activist group FreePress, and together with that merry band of radical media “reformistas,” McChesney and Nichols are scripting out a blueprint for complete State control of the [...]

By: The Free Press / Hugo Chavez Vision for American Media – Media Freedom

The Free Press / Hugo Chavez Vision for American Media – Media Freedom — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:07:37 +0000

[...] Press blueprint for media reform! But one would hope and think that McChesney and his merry band of media reformistas at Free Press wouldn’t be gaining much traction here in the U.S. with their self-described [...]

By: How America’s Hugo Chavez Fan Club Plans to ‘Reform’ Our Media Marketplace

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:31:49 +0000

[...] blueprint for media reform! But one would hope and think that McChesney and his merry band of media reformistas at Free Press wouldn’t be gaining much traction here in the U.S. with their self-described [...]

By: How America’s Hugo Chavez Fan Club Plans to ‘Reform’ Our Media Marketplace « Internet Freedom Coalition

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:55:51 +0000

By: Free Press Calls on Feds to Halt TV Innovation — Technology Liberation Front

Free Press Calls on Feds to Halt TV Innovation — Technology Liberation Front — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:32:34 +0000

[...] so galling about this is that Free Press and these other “media reformista” groups are constantly harping about how struggling media operators need to “change [...]

By: The Progress & Freedom Foundation Blog

The Progress & Freedom Foundation Blog — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:38:26 +0000

A "Public Option" for Media? The Free Press Plan to Put Journalists on the Public Dole...

Free Press, the radical pro-regulatory media activist group, recently filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the agency's upcoming workshop on "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" The Free Press comments provide an enl...

By: A “Public Option” for Media? The Free Press Plan to Put Journalists on the Public Dole — Technology Liberation Front

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:24:05 +0000

[...] Press, the radical pro-regulatory media activist group, recently filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the [...]

By: Media Matters tries out “scare quote-fu” on Glenn Beck’s Free Press report « NewsReal Blog

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:49:25 +0000

[...] libertarian free speech group Technology Liberation Front (their site’s Soviet style graphics are ironic) has more on McChesney: He is the godfather of [...]

By: Nanny State Says: “Shhhhh! That Commercial is Too Loud!” — Technology Liberation Front

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:56:22 +0000

[...] horizontal and vertical. But isn’t media consolidation the great evil that “media reformistas” are constantly warning us [...]

By: Humbling the Mighty: How the Internet’s Media Abundance Killed the News Embargo — Technology Liberation Front

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:00:12 +0000

[...] of news outlets like the New York Times, but little about the humbling of news-makers. While the media reformistas would have us believe that dark, shadowy forces control what we hear, see and read, the [...]

By: Free Press, Robert McChesney & the “Struggle” for Media Marxism

Free Press, Robert McChesney & the “Struggle” for Media Marxism — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:51:08 +0000

[...] deconstructing and criticizing the proposals set forth by the Free Press, the radical media “reformista” group founded by the prolific Marxist media theorist Robert McChesney. I have been trying [...]

By: YouTube, Power Laws & the Persistence of Media Inequality | The Technology Liberation Front

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:45:56 +0000

[...] that has guided the “media access” movement for decades and it what fuels the “media reformista” movement that is led by groups like the (inappropriately named) Free Press, which was founded by [...]

By: Free Press Hypocrisy over Metering & Internet Price Controls | The Technology Liberation Front

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:04:57 +0000

[...] Act“), George Ou and Richard Bennett reminded me of some of the contradictory statements that the (Un)Free Press crew have made on this issue. Indeed, if you look back at what Free Press and their chairman have said [...]

By: The (Un)Free Press Call for Internet Price Controls: “The Broadband Internet Fairness Act” | The Technology Liberation Front

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:47:35 +0000

[...] efforts that involves getting their merry band of radical reformistas to encourage lawmakers to sign on to Rep. Eric Massa’s (D-NY) newly-introduced [...]

By: Shall We Save Media by Socializing It? | The Technology Liberation Front

Shall We Save Media by Socializing It? | The Technology Liberation Front — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:47:39 +0000

[...] Free Press, the activist group they cofounded in 2002. The organization’s boisterous band of reformistas work tirelessly to mobilize troops whenever the slightest whiff of media liberalization is in the [...]

By: Don’t Worry about the Fairness Doctrine. No, Wait, Strike That. | The Technology Liberation Front

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:42:19 +0000

[...] effort is being spearheaded by the media reformistas whose short-term goal is to reinvigorate the amorphous “public interest standard” such [...]

By: Media Deconsolidation (Part 25): The Series So Far - The Technology Liberation Front

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:21:21 +0000

[...] are usually propagated by a group of radical anti-media regulatory activists who I call the “media reformistas.” Sadly, however, many policymakers, journalists, and members of the public are buying into [...]

By: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » Media Deconsolidation (Part 23): Cox Selling Most of its Newspapers

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:41:44 +0000

[...] tells me I shouldn’t hold my breath in anticipation of those statements since we know the media reformistas have a far more ambitious and radical “reform” agenda in [...]

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:50:47 +0000

If Free Press had its way, we’d all be forced to watch PBS and listen to NPR. I do a lot of that anyway, but it would be sad if it was all we had in the way of programming choices.

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:50:47 +0000

If Free Press had its way, we’d all be forced to watch PBS and listen to NPR. I do a lot of that anyway, but it would be sad if it was all we had in the way of programming choices.

By: WSA

WSA — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:13:06 +0000

Adam gets right to the end game of refomistas, revealing in them two of the qualities Thomas Sowell illustrated so well in his "The Vision of the Anointed," namely that:

1) Fashionable Elites believe they are better equipped than the Common Man (or God help us, some venal capitalist) to sit in judgment over what should and should not be permitted in the news business, regardless of what history and millions of consumers might have haplessly come to believe, and

2) These Fashionable Elites should be permitted to force their opinions on others within a protected environment, suffering none of the consequences their pronouncements will inevitably have on countless others.

History has amply demonstrated what happens when the press is "freed" from capitalism, and it is a dreary picture indeed.

By: WSA

WSA — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:13:06 +0000

Adam gets right to the end game of refomistas, revealing in them two of the qualities Thomas Sowell illustrated so well in his "The Vision of the Anointed," namely that:

1) Fashionable Elites believe they are better equipped than the Common Man (or God help us, some venal capitalist) to sit in judgment over what should and should not be permitted in the news business, regardless of what history and millions of consumers might have haplessly come to believe, and

2) These Fashionable Elites should be permitted to force their opinions on others within a protected environment, suffering none of the consequences their pronouncements will inevitably have on countless others.

History has amply demonstrated what happens when the press is "freed" from capitalism, and it is a dreary picture indeed.

By: Longfellow

Longfellow — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:52:09 +0000

Why would a (severely unconstitutional) “mandate for more local coverage” ensure that newspapers or broadcast stations suddenly grow the teeth that you presume they currently lack in a relatively unregulated media market? This is one of the classic faulty assumptions most commonly made by Reformistas (I’ll steal Adam’s word). They assume, based on no evidence, that a government mandate for more local coverage — however that might be measured — will automatically translate into better journalism. The assumption is based on the equally faulty (and ironic, given the source) belief that media companies are not as economically efficient as they could be (i.e., they are missing the gold mine that is local news). It’s a clever way for Reformistas to coax media companies into believing that more regulation will somehow be better for their bottom line. Of course, no one is buying it, except other media critics.

Upon closer examination, the A + B = C logic of media critics like McChesney (whose books are embarrassingly bad for a renowned and oft-cited professor) falls apart because of one simple fact – you cannot create regulation that will improve the quality of journalism.

By: Longfellow

Longfellow — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:52:09 +0000

Upon closer examination, the A + B = C logic of media critics like McChesney (whose books are embarrassingly bad for a renowned and oft-cited professor) falls apart because of one simple fact – you cannot create regulation that will improve the quality of journalism.

By: MikeT

MikeT — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:40:32 +0000

With Chicago, there is so much corruption for enterprising investigative journalists to investigate and report on that the mandate for more local coverage will have the effect of not only creating more profit for the paper, but seriously holding the city government’s butt to the fire. No small part of the reason why the media is falling apart is that it’s a toothless watchdog that rarely fails to let government get away with corruption and bad behavior. In Virginia alone, there are two potentially ripe cases for scandal that the media has largely refused to take ahold of: the Rack-n-Roll bar in Manassas Park and Ryan Frederick’s police shooting case. Radley Balko of the agitator has done a fine job following both with his own journalistic efforts. Without him and a few others, you’d barely even know that these things were going on.

By: MikeT

MikeT — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:40:32 +0000