By Tim Karr/BillMoyers.com

Journalists in Manila had very little time to cover Monday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte. But it was enough to witness one aspect of the budding bromance between these two world leaders.
As soon as journalists began asking questions about Duterte’s deplorable human-rights record, security shooed them from the room.
Duterte pointed at the departing reporters and said, “Guys, you are the spies.”
This elicited a laugh from President Trump, who feels a kinship with anyone who opposes a truth-seeking press.
According to Human Rights Watch, at least 177 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since 1986, making it one of the deadliest countries to be a reporter. Of these, nearly half were targeted for their coverage of politics, corruption, crime and human rights, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Posted on November 16, 2017

By Margot Susca/The Conversation

Considering the history of television news a few years ago, iconic anchor Ted Koppel declared that CBS’ 1968 debut of 60 Minutes forever altered the landscape of broadcast journalism: A news program drew enough advertising to turn a profit. As Koppel told it, 60 Minutes showed broadcasters that news divisions could make money – which was a huge shift in how management executives thought of news, affecting both the quality and type of coverage broadcast over the publicly owned airwaves.
Until then, broadcast news in the U.S. had been a costly requirement media companies had to bear as part of getting permission to use the airwaves. “All of a sudden, making money became part of what we did,” Koppel told the audience of a Frontline series called “News War.”
In the decades since, news divisions have been held to the same profit-making standards as corporate media’s entertainment divisions. Corporate owners slashed foreign bureaus as coverage remained focused on emotion and celebrity rather than public affairs.
In late October, the Federal Communications Commission made it even easier for media conglomerates to focus on money-making. That was when the FCC abolished a World War II-era policy that was intended to force news broadcasters to be connected to – and accountable to – the communities their programming reached.
My work as a political economist suggests that local broadcast media content is about to get worse, focusing even more on stories that can turn a profit for corporate headquarters rather than serving local communities. And the big companies that operate these stations are going to withdraw even farther from the communities they cover, threatening a key foundation of American democracy.

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Posted on November 13, 2017

By The Museum of Classic Chicago Television

1974 edition.

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Posted on November 7, 2017

Cite Consumer Protection Duties

Filed with the FCC.
The Attorneys General of the states of Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island submit the following Comments in opposition to the Tribune Media Company (Transferor) (“Tribune”) and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Inc. (Transferee) (“Sinclair”) Consolidated Applications for Consent to Transfer Control, which seek the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC” or “Commission”) consent to transfer control of Tribune’s full-power broadcast televisions stations, low-power television stations, and television translator stations to Sinclair.
As the chief consumer protection and law enforcement officers in our respective states, we are responsible for promoting and defending the public interest. The proposed consolidation fails to further the public interest by allowing for increased consolidation that will decrease consumer choices and voices in the marketplace.

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Posted on November 3, 2017

By Pete Kastanes/YouTube

Including Chiller Theatre, House of Frightenstein and Monster Week.

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Posted on October 30, 2017

By Free Press

At a House oversight hearing on Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to obliterate longstanding media ownership rules, including limits on how many stations one company can own in a single market and a longstanding ban on newspapers owning stations in the same market.
Pai’s announcement follows the FCC’s moves to restore the so-called UHF discount that allows large chains to conceal the reach of their stations and to end requirements that owners of television and radio stations operate studios in or near the communities they’re supposed to serve.

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Posted on October 26, 2017

By Free Press

The FCC voted on Tuesday to eliminate the “main studio rule,” which requires TV and radio broadcasters to maintain studios in or near the communities they serve.
The party line vote was led by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who has close ties to the Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the rule change’s chief beneficiaries.
Sinclair’s proposed $3.9 billion merger with Tribune Media is now being reviewed by government agencies including the Justice Department and the FCC. Should regulators approve the merger, the resulting broadcast giant would control more than 233 local TV stations reaching 72 percent of the country’s population, far in excess of congressional and FCC limits on national and local media ownership.

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Posted on October 25, 2017

Assembly Required

Flames can be on without heater.

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Posted on October 24, 2017

By Virginia García Beaudoux/The Conversation

The sexual abuse scandal currently embroiling media mogul Harvey Weinstein has stunned the United States, with Hollywood and the fashion industry declaring that “this way of treating women ends now.”
As an Argentinean woman who studies gender in the media, I find it hard to be surprised by Weinstein’s misdeeds. Machismo remains deeply ingrained in Latin American society, yes, but even female political leaders in supposedly gender-equal paradises like Holland and Sweden have told me that they are criticized more in the press and held to a higher standard than their male counterparts.
How could they not be? Across the world, the film and TV industry – Weinstein’s domain – continues to foist outdated gender roles upon viewers.

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Posted on October 23, 2017

By Robert Freeman/Common Dreams

Since the day it ended, in 1975, there have been efforts to rehabilitate the Vietnam War – to make it acceptable, even honorable. After all, there were so many sides to the story, weren’t there? It was so complex, so nuanced. There was real heroism among the troops.
Of course, all of this is true, but it’s true of every war so it doesn’t redeem any war. The Vietnam War is beyond redemption and must be remembered and condemned for the calamity that it was. The Vietnam War was “one of the greatest American foreign policy disasters of the 20th century.”
Those are not the words of a leftist pundit or a scribbling anti-American. They are the words of H.R. McMaster, the sitting National Security Advisor to the President of the United States.

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Posted on September 25, 2017