Let's Buy the Media

[Caro]

If you think progressives no longer need to worry about a media strategy, I'm here to tell you that we're not out of the woods yet. Pro-corporatist Republicans are still working on gaining a complete stranglehold on what is reported in America.

Will Bunch of Editor & Publisher recommends in the excerpt below exactly what I’ve been advocating—a non-profit that owns media outlets. Please help me convince MoveOn.org to get behind this project ([email protected]).

Knight Ridder Reporter Warns of Hostile Takeover--with Political Twist?
As reports swirl that KR could or should be sold, under new pressure from what he calls a "pro-GOP" big investor, a longtime Philly Daily News scribe charges that this would be "bad news" for the chain--and all of American media.

By Will Bunch

PHILADELPHIA (November 02, 2005) -- As you probably know if you're a newspaper junkie, and may not know if you're a normal human being, a Florida-based investment group -- with zero fanfare -- has bought up 19% of the stock of Knight Ridder, Inc., the owners of the Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, not to mention the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury News, and a bunch of other big names in the dead-tree world…

They want to sell the company.

This is probably very bad news, for a couple of reasons. And even if you're one of the many people who thinks that newspapers are dinosaurs and believe it doesn't matter whether they live or die, you should pay attention to this…

Say what you will about Knight Ridder's business practices, but when it comes to journalism, they do a remarkably good job of getting out of the way. Thus, the liberal editorial voice of the Daily News and the Inquirer, and the amazing work by Knight Ridder's Washington bureau, which was one of the few media voices casting doubt in 2002 and 2003 on whether Iraq had WMD and posed a threat to America…

We only see one good solution here, and it's a long-shot -- but I'm going to throw it out there. It's clearly possible that some Knight-Ridder papers could be sold off individually. Wouldn't it be great if the stock in a new Philadelphia Daily News Corp. were owned by the non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts?

Something like this had been done in Florida, where the St. Petersburg Times is owned by the non-profit Poynter Institute…

These new developments aren't just a business deal -- they're important for a free media, and important for democracy.

Wake up, everybody.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Kkkarl put information reliability back a century, and msm helped.

[ms liberty]

2. Recommended...

for the ideas. Something needs to be done to save Knight Ridder from the corp media grinder; if it's Soros, or MoveOn, or Pew...somewhere we have to draw the line.

[...of J.Temperance]

3. Okay, EVERYBODY empty out your piggy banks :) n/t

[OKthatsIT]

4. LINK TV could take over for PBS, let's take it on

LINK TV and Free Speech TV.

I think LINK would be the better choice only because its on the Direct TV's 'Basic'.

[Orrin_73]

5. But ...but .... the media is already

Liberal :sarcasm:

[Caro]

7. Oh yeah

I forgot.

Caro

[EFerrari]

6. Welcome to DU, Caro

I think you absolutely right.

And that means, us -- not Mr. Soros or Al Gore or whoEVER working "behind the scenes".

:hi:

[Caro]

8. Yes, it does mean us.

And thanks for the welcome.

Caro

[Caro]

9. Help me convince MoveOn to help

See today's posting.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2225222

Caro

[samsingh]

10. i totally agree with you.

[Justpat]

11. kick for this..

[AX10]

12. Kick!

I agree! Great Idea!

:kick: