Tag: Independent media

ALTERNATIVES TO THE HUGE, BILLIONAIRE-OWNED NEWS AND MEDIA COMPANIES

The huge, billionaire-owned news and media companies are not providing voters with the balanced, factual information needed for a well-functioning democracy. I urge you to abandon these biased, corporate news sources, or, at the least, complement them with independent, typically viewer / reader supported, non-profit sources, such as those listed below.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

(Note: Please follow me and get notices of my blog posts on Bluesky at: @jalippitt.bsky.social. Thanks!)

The huge, billionaire-owned news and media companies are not providing voters with the balanced, factual information they need to maintain a well-functioning democracy. In particular, they are not reporting on Trump, his administration, and his allies in a way that provides accurate, important information and context. In large part this reflects the bias of their owners toward conservative or right-wing, capitalist points of view. Can you imagine their reporting if President Biden had fallen asleep in cabinet meetings? Or had had an MRI and wouldn’t reveal what was scanned or why? Or once misspoke or blatantly lied as Trump does multiple times in every speech he gives?

My previous post identified seven ways to compensate for or correct this bias in the mainstream media, two that are things we can do as individuals, while the other five require institutional action.

The first individual step, which we all can and should take, is to patronize independent, reader / viewer funded news media. Your time spent reading / viewing them, your subscriptions to them, and, if you can, your financial support of them boosts their viability. Furthermore, share their content; comment on and like their reporting.

There’s so much information and so many sources of it that it’s overwhelming. Skimming is definitely required; only read, watch, or listen to pieces that particularly interest you or that are truly important. Keep in mind that a lot of the “news” from Trump and his administration is insignificant; it’s meant to divert attention and to confuse and overwhelm the media and all of us.

Here are some suggestions. First, do pay attention to (i.e., skim and read selectively) your local and state news. They are important and the foundation of democracy and grassroots activism.

  1. Pick a local news source or two in your community to follow (assuming they exist).
  2. Pick a state or regional news source or two to follow. For me, that’s the Boston Globe.

For national political news, analysis, and commentary (which is my focus), pick a couple of sources to follow (i.e., skim and read / watch selectively) from the options below or others. For visual news and information, here are three recommendations:

  1. Watch or listen to your local PBS TV and/or radio station.
  2. Watch the short videos (typically 4 – 6 minutes) from Robert Raich at Inequality Media. They are informative, yet entertaining and easy to understand, They cover current news and explanations of how our economy and democracy work or should work.
  3. Watch or listen to Democracy NOW! programming on your TV, radio, computer, or other device. It airs an hour long current international news program recorded each weekday at 8 a.m. Eastern Time. It is available on the Internet, via its website, and on more than 1,400 radio and television stations. It combines worldwide news, investigative journalism, and progressive political commentary.

If you like text (to read or skim) here are some recommendations:

  1. Robert Hubbell publishes a daily online newsletter, Today’s Edition Newsletter, that covers current political news, providing analysis and commentary, particularly from a legal perspective. He is upbeat and optimistic. He includes specific opportunities to take grassroots action to fight for our democracy. You can also listen to the newsletter as a podcast.
  2. Heather Cox Richardson publishes a daily online newsletter, Letters from an American, that covers current political events and provides analysis and context, and often a historical perspective.
  3. Common Dreams distributes daily or weekly emails with summaries of and links to its relatively short articles covering current political news that is often underreported by the mainstream media.
  4. Robert Reich publishes a daily online newsletter that provides analysis of and commentary on current political events and policies. He identifies policies that have led to our current situation and ones that would remedy it.
  5. Mother Jones provides broad reporting, including progressive political commentary and investigative journalism. It’s available in print (every two months), online, and via videos, e-newsletters, and podcasts.
  6. The Nation covers politics and culture with a progressive bent both online and in print (monthly). It has a variety of focused email newsletters one can sign up for as well as podcasts.
  7. The American Prospect magazine (every 2 months) and website is the best and most comprehensive source for progressive policy analysis and proposals, in my humble opinion. It also has a variety of e-newsletters one can sign up for.
  8. ProPublica does incredible and impactful investigative journalism with great depth and breadth, including national, regional, and local investigations. Its products are available online. It has e-newsletters one can sign up for. It also maintains a searchable database of the annual returns filed by non-profit organizations.
  9. Chop Wood, Carry Water, Jess Craven’s daily blog on politics, includes messages to deliver to your members of Congress. She posts every Sunday a good news post that’s a very welcome source of hope and encouragement in these dark times.

Other sources that I use on occasion include the Economic Policy Institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Brennan Center for Justice, Open Secrets (on money in elections), The Guardian (which includes international news), and The Atlantic. A longer list by topic is available here from Project Censored. (Note: Project Censored’s primary goal is to highlight stories un- or under-reported by the mainstream media, i.e., effectively censored by them.)

Huge billionaire-owned news and media companies are dangerous, harmful, and biased. They control and skew the information we receive and not infrequently deliver disinformation. They are not providing voters with the balanced, factual information they need to maintain a well-functioning democracy.

I urge you to abandon the biased, corporate news sources, or, at the least, complement them with independent, typically viewer / reader supported, non-profit sources. There are plenty of options for good news and information that better serve voters in a democracy.

FIXES FOR HUGE, BILLIONAIRE-OWNED NEWS AND MEDIA COMPANIES

Huge news and media companies are dangerous and harmful. They control the information and disinformation we receive. They are not providing voters with the information they need to maintain a well-functioning democracy. Here are steps to rein in and compensate for their dangers and harm.

Huge news and media companies owned by billionaires are dangerous and harmful. They control the information and disinformation we receive. They are not providing voters with the complete, balanced, factual information they need to maintain a well-functioning democracy. Therefore, we need, individually and through government policy, to take steps, such as those below, to rein in and compensate for their dangers and harm.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

(Note: Please follow me and get notices of my blog posts on Bluesky at: @jalippitt.bsky.social. Thanks!)

My previous post focused on the dangers of huge, for-profit, billionaire-owned news and media companies in the TV, radio, print, and social media markets. It noted how their profit motive drives divisive content and a focus on culture war issues. And how this skews our politics and the focus of politicians and the public, while it undermines democracy.

This post focuses on how we can respond to this corruption of our news and media both personally and through government and institutional actions, including the following: [1] [2]

  1. Most immediately, patronize independent, reader / viewer funded news media. In particular, support local media, including local Public Broadcast System (PBS) radio and TV, as well as local print and on-line news sources. Your time spent reading / viewing and subscriptions to these outlets and, if you can, your financial support boosts their viability. Share their content; comment on and like their reporting. (Here’s a link to a previous post that identifies eight sources of news and analysis that I recommend. Much longer lists by topic are available here from Project Censored. Note: Project Censored’s primary goal is to highlight stories un- or under-reported by the mainstream media, i.e., effectively censored by them.)
  2. Enhance media literacy for ourselves, our families, friends, and colleagues. Build critical thinking skills so we and everyone we know can distinguish truth from misinformation, disinformation, lies, and fiction, i.e., real news from fake news. Encourage schools and adult learning programs to include courses on critical thinking and media literacy. More information is available from PBS here.
  3. Expect and, where possible, require news and media companies to clearly and fully disclose conflicts of interest and biases. When they don’t, call them out with comments, posts, letters to the editor, etc. Media watchdogs and professional associations should lead the way on this. Ultimately, ownership of news and media companies by individuals and entities with other business interests should be banned. This would prevent many conflicts of interest and biases. It would also insulate the news and media companies from being manipulated by government officials or others through leverage via other business interests. For example, Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post and also Amazon, which has significant government contracts and is affected by many government labor regulations. Similarly, Elon Musk owns X and has many interests via government contracts and regulations on his other companies. Therefore, they are both susceptible to manipulation by President Trump.
  4. Viewers’ and readers’ personal information should be protected (e.g., ban its collection) and it should be illegal to use it to tailor individual’s news feeds. Personal information is currently used to feed audiences one-sided and slanted information, including disinformation, to spark their emotions and therefore their engagement. This is divisive for society and undermines democracy by failing to provide voters with complete, balanced, factual information.
  5. Regulate social media with a combination of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) standards and public utility regulations. These would require them to serve the public interest and to stop harming children. They should be liable for failures to moderate content for accuracy, to prevent hate speech and other inflammatory messages (e.g., calls for violence), and to prevent harm.
  6. Reinstate rules on fairness and accuracy in broadcast media that the FCC repealed in the 1980s. Require that news divisions operate independently of executives, advertising, and shareholders, as they did prior to the 1980s. The relicensing of TV and radio stations for their use of the public airwaves should enforce these standards and serious fines should be levied for violations of them.
  7. Use antitrust laws and anti-monopoly regulations to stop any further consolidation in the news and media industry. Ultimately, the huge conglomerates should be broken up. The FCC should change its rules and lower the number of news and media outlets any one entity is allowed to own in local, regional, and national markets.

Huge news and media companies are dangerous and harmful. They control the information and disinformation we receive. Their billionaire owners have biases, including politically. They are not providing voters with the complete, balanced, factual information they need to maintain a well-functioning democracy.

This situation is not inevitable. Personal and institutional actions, including public policies of governments, can change it. Steps, such as those above, need to be taken to rein in and compensate for the dangers and harms of huge news and media companies with billionaire owners.

[1]      Reich, R., 11/26/25, “The billionaires destroying our media system and what to do about it,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/billionaire-ownership-media)

[2]      Reich, R., 12/2/25, “The monetization of rage,” (https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-monetization-of-rage)