Book Excerpt / 1 These large corporations, however, are trying to control the Internet, to restrict the free flow of information, to restore their historical role of for-profit arbiter of what we can and cannot read, watch, or hear
papers are folding at an alarming rate, like Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, shuttered after almost 150 years. Others have stopped printing paper editions, moving online, like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Christian Science Monitor. In fact, most papers are still profitable – just not profitable enough for Wall Street. Shareholders demand a return on investments, attaching no value to the crucial role that journalism plays in society. Increasingly restless, people are looking for alternative sources of information in this complex world. They are getting savvier at pursuing the news sources they want, when and how they want it – on websites, through audio and video podcasting, on mobile platforms. They critique, share, excerpt, and repost the content they appreciate, adding their insights, running circles around the old networks while building their own trusted online communities. Many contribute reporting, joining the global ranks of the increasingly important citizen (and noncitizen) journalists. All this was enabled because the Internet has been free and unfettered, driven by “net neutrality,” the rules of the Internet that have kept its content and uses equal – that have made web sources like democracynow.org as readily available as the sites of the major media corporations. These large corporations, however, are trying to control the Internet, to restrict the free flow of information, to restore their historical role of for-profit arbiter of what we can and cannot read, watch, or hear. Preserving net neutrality will prevent their digital oligopoly, keeping the Internet a level playing field. Despite the opportunities this new media environment provides, there is still no replacing the historically crucial role played by the seasoned muckraker in our society. How can journalism be supported sustainably? There has been much discussion of “nonprofit” journalism. I! has been practicing nonprofit journalism for 14 years, following the lead of Pacifica Radio, which has been at it for more than 60 years, brought to
12 TheReader | November 2009
you by the audience – not by corporations that profit from war. Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program, pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the United States. We broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, and satellite television; and on the Internet at democracynow.org. Democracy Now!’s podcast is one of the most popular on the web. We shepherd our resources carefully, invest in people, develop and use open source technology, and don’t answer to advertisers. I remember as the bombs were falling on Baghdad in 2003, when we got an e-mail from Radio Skid Row, a Sydney, Australia, community radio station that carries Democracy Now! They received a comment from a listener asking, “How is it that the best coverage of the war is coming from the poorest station in Sydney?” This is what independent media is all about: unembedded, investigative, international journalism. The columns collected here are stories from both the streets and the suites, bringing out voices from all over this increasingly globalized world. Unprecedented changes are affecting everyone, everywhere. I have tried to go beyond the nine-second sound bite to bring you a taste of the whole meal. I see the media as a huge kitchen table that stretches across this globe, one we all sit around to debate and discuss the most critical issues of the day: war and peace, life and death. Anything less than that is a disservice to a democratic society.
2. NOVEMBER 30, 2006
The Art of War and Deception
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very great work of art goes through messy phases while it is in transition. A lump of clay can become a sculpture; blobs of paint become paintings which inspire.”