On Monday, the White House released a statement from President Obama in support of Net neutrality, his strongest and most direct since the 2008 election campaign. “An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life,” he began. “By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known. Continue reading →
When the Citizens United decision came down in 2010, many feared the Supreme Court had unleashed vast and unfettered campaign contributions from corporations bent on tightening their hammerlock on government and politics. Continue reading →
At the end of the classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Jimmy Stewart, as Senator Jefferson Smith, is in the midst of his filibuster against the corruption of the political machine that sent him to Capitol Hill as their lackey. Now he knows the truth and he’s taken over the floor of the Senate to tell it. Continue reading →
Analyzing a government report is like eating and digesting a meal—better to take it slowly than gobble quickly and suffer the possible consequences. Continue reading →
Looking over the last few weeks of news, if you would seek a single headline that sums up the Hulk-like grip in which corporate America holds the US Congress, this might be it: “Eric Cantor’s Loss a Blow to Wall Street.” Continue reading →
Here in polyglot New York, pop into any bar, restaurant or even dry cleaner and chances are there’s a TV set tuned to the World Cup. And Monday’s surprise United States victory over rival Ghana—the cheers when the US scored the winning goal rocked my neighborhood—has increased attention even more. The fever has taken hold in our city as it has around the planet, with hundreds of millions watching the soccer—football—action from Brazil, this year’s host country. Continue reading →
The vote was taken at the Federal Communications Commission Thursday morning, as drums pounded and hundreds of demonstrators supporting Net neutrality chanted outside FCC headquarters. Continue reading →
As the US Senate holds its first hearing on the proposed Comcast-Time Warner deal—a $45 billion transaction that will affect millions of consumers and further pad some already well-lined pockets—it’s useful to get a look at how our elected officials have benefitted from the largesse of the two companies with an urge to merge. Continue reading →
Last Wednesday’s announcement by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler that the FCC would write new rules to insure open access to the Internet—otherwise known as Net neutrality—generally was seen by consumers as a step in the right direction. But media reform advocates were concerned that it didn’t go far enough. Continue reading →
In the words of Howard Beale, the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves in the movie Network, “Woe is us! We’re in a lot of trouble!” And, as Beale would shout, we should be mad as hell. Continue reading →
Ten years ago, when Moyers & Company guests John Nichols and Robert McChesney appeared on the series Now with Bill Moyers, they protested the lack of public involvement in decisions concerning mass media. “There are a handful of very interested parties who are deeply engaged,” Nichols said then, “ who think about it every day, who hire lobbyists, who spend a great deal of money, not merely to lobby Congress, but also, to lobby the FCC.” Continue reading →
The other day there was this guy in a chicken suit on Pennsylvania Avenue protesting outside the White House. Silly, but the reason the chicken and other demonstrators had crossed the avenue was to deliver a petition of more than half a million names, speaking out against new rules the US Department of Agriculture wants to put into effect—bad rules that would transfer much of the work inspecting pork and chicken and turkey meat from trained government inspectors to the processing companies themselves. Talk about putting the fox in the henhouse! Continue reading →
“It’s time to turn America right side up!” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka exhorted those in attendance at the labor alliance’s quadrennial convention in Los Angeles on Monday. Time, he said in his keynote address, to change the ratio of power, to put the 99 percent in charge rather than let the richest one percent dominate government, politics and society. Continue reading →
Remembering Robin Williams
Posted on August 13, 2014 by Michael Winship
Two memories of Robin Williams. The last time I was in his presence was during the 2007-08 Writers Guild strike. Robin showed up to walk our picket line at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, just a couple of blocks from where the Moyers & Company offices are now. Continue reading →