There is a little-known ritual that occurs in the election years when Democrats prevail: Big "Conservative" Media starts to pull progressive talk radio off the air. I documented this in my 2009 documentary film Broadcast Blues: After Democratic candidates made big gains in 2006, Clear Channel and other...

Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan stepped into the vice presidential debate prepped with a cadre of misstatements to confuse voters (24, according to Think Progress' count.) But he didn't get away with much, what with Vice President Joe Biden giving him a drubbing ("Facts matter," Biden said again and...

Whatever questions remain about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's recall election, there is no question that his campaign was built on big money, the likes of which we've never seen in a gubernatorial campaign before. And where did all that money go? Right into thin air...

Anyone remember a time when radio seemed friendly and informative, rather than hostile and manipulative?

I do. And I remember when it changed in 1996, after Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act into law, and suddenly, huge corporations like Clear Channel began using our public airwaves -- those...

There is much talk amongst radio talk show hosts about their rights of Free Speech. I do not condone any kind of censorship (outside incitement to violence,) and agree radio talkers have their rights. But so do We the People, and it is time we stand up for...

Wednesday, August 24, 2011, the FCC made it official: the Fairness Doctrine is dead and buried. But public interest obligations, on the other hand, are clearly alive and well!

The announcement about the final elimination of the Fairness Doctrine, (first made Monday but not officially codified...

After revealing his "long form" birth certificate Wednesday, President Obama scolded the news media for letting this non-issue become a national obsession.

But if President Obama really wants to restore reporting to its rightful role, he needs to act on commitments he made immediately after his...

In the October issue of O magazine, the DCCC's Donna Brazile did the unthinkable: she used the "F" word -- in Oprah Winfrey's publication, no less. Eyebrows are being raised across the political spectrum.

Okay, not that "F" word, but one that is far more controversial: Brazile says...

Wow. The FCC just fined a radio station $4,000 for getting a date wrong in some radio contest rules. If that infraction is worth four grand, whatever will the FCC do to the station which killed someone because it failed to give contestants any rules at all?...

August 5, 2010

In Sarasota, Florida today, a four year long battle over real election accountability has come to a bitter end.

Way back in January, 2006, Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections started gathering petitions to qualify a charter amendment for the November ballot, calling for paper ballots...

Unless the courts prevent it, the contentious Arizona immigration law Senate Bill 1070, which gives police power to racially profile people of color, will go into effect Thursday, July 29. Both friends and foes of the law are girding for battle, and the war of words is...

A diverse group of conservative, mainly Republican religious leaders are touring the country in support of comprehensive immigration reform. Their goal: to target Republicans who can be convinced that immigration reform is a moral imperative.

In a conference call Conservatives for Comprehensive Immigration Reform held Wednesday, moderator...

Four Democratic leaders, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller, Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher, and California Rep. Henry Waxman are taking aim this month at what I like to call Public Enemy Number One: the 1996 Telecommunications...

Last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission held a hearing about Media Ownership at Stanford University. It is part of an ongoing requirement that every three years, the FCC take public comment about who owns licenses to broadcast, what rules license holders should follow, where under-served communities lie, how to balance...

Broadcasters are licensed to serve the public interest. If a radio or TV station does not serve the public interest, the FCC can take its license to broadcast away, and give the opportunity to make millions using the public airwaves to someone else.

Yes, we the people do have...

What started as a Twitter campaign by a lone law-school student in Madison, Wisconsin has morphed into Glenn Beck's worst nightmare: advertisers are dropping him like flies. His show in the UK does not have even one advertiser. Still, thanks to the power of News Corporation, the show goes...

Last Friday, many Americans witnessed a rare bit of political theater when President Obama addressed the GOP Retreat in Baltimore. By insisting that live TV cameras be allowed into the exchange, the President took a rare opportunity to take control of his message in full view of the public, calling...

I was strolling through my local county fair this summer, a small fair, a friendly fair, where cows, sheep and pigs outnumber food vendors.

The Republican booth caught my eye, but not because of the red white and blue decorations. What caught my eye was the sign they'd posted,...

On August 11, 2009, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in a unanimous vote, became the first elected body in the United States to stand up to Hate Radio. Their resolution urges "the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct a comprehensive investigation on hate speech in the media, allowing public...

It's war.

Hundreds of protesters are turning Democratic Town Hall meetings into combat zones in a battle over health care. They are angry, really angry. Barack Obama's healthcare plan, they believe, is going to euthanize Grandma.

I would be angry, too, if they were going to kill my grandmother,...