The Roosevelt Institution

Center on the Media

“Where the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe.”  So wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1816, confident that the press could safely serve its constitutionally-protected role.  Now, nearly two hundred years later, we survey the sorry state of American journalism and conclude that all is not safe—for the present-day press is far from free.

Policies of pro-business “deregulation” throughout the 1990s and, more recently, loosened FCC restrictions on ownership have created a climate most hospitable to consolidation and concentration of media outlets.  Ever-fewer interests own ever more stations, newspapers, and magazines; profit is maximized at the expense of pluralism, localism, and quality programming.  The airwaves and the headlines, in the words of Robert McChesney, are owned by an “oligopoly.” 

Standards, too, have suffered: “news” is not what’s newsworthy, but what sells—the sensational, the scandalous, the frivolous, the fashionable.  Such misplaced priorities have come to characterize political journalism, trivializing the important while trumpeting the trivial.  Given that the chief connection between politician and citizen is the mass media, these developments should be deeply troubling not only to progressives but to all citizens.

America deserves better.  We are not receiving the information we require to be informed.  It is vital that we rethink—and remake—our media policy, as soon as possible.  It goes without saying that a free press cannot exist without a free citizenry.  But the opposite is just as true.  When a profit-driven press is distorting, caricaturing, and trivializing the politicians and policies of the land, we must wonder: Just how free are we?

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Joining the Media Policy Team

To join this center or to request further information, contact Policy Chair Tim Gray at gray@virginia.edu.  More details about the center's upcoming activities and initiatives will be posted soon.

Group members:
Timothy H Gray
Michael Bowen
Rhys Carter
RJ Cubarrubia
Caleb Erikson
Matt Gulati
Defne Gunay
Daniel Hartzman
Nancy Hulgrave
Allison M Jenkins
Adam Justus
Druv Kapadic
Adam K Keith
Amy Kniss
Emily Lacy
Sarah B Myers
David A Petkofsky
Zachary T Pruckowski
Alexandria Shaner
Ashley Singh
Laura Swett
Jeff L Yates