Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

No News Is Bad News: The Death Dance of Journalism and the Twilight of Democracy
Bill Quigley
20 May 2009
🖨️ Print Article

by Robert McChesney

In this 90 minute address, Dr. Robert McChesney argues that the disappearance of journalism from newspapers and broadcast media marks the twilight of democracy.  Back in the days when Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists started their newspapers, the US Postal Service was mailing them for free.  At the time, newspapers were 90% of post office volume, and accounted for 2% of its income, a massive government subsidy.  Only a massive subsidy --- a stimulus program for journalism, and stripping corporate owners of dozens and hundreds of stations that some of them own, can begin to make real democracy possible.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Barack Obama, George Washington and the 4th of July
    01 Jul 2026
    The opening of the Obama Center has brought Barack Obama back into the spotlight, although he offers nothing new. He will be in the pocket of the oligarchy for the rest of his life, and that means he…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    LYRICS: Bicentennial Blues, Gil Scott-Heron, 1976
    01 Jul 2026
    “George Washington/Slave-owner general/Ironic that the father of this country/ Should be a slave owner/The father of this country a slave-owner.”
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    F$$K the Fourth: Declaring Our Collective Independence from the Sinking Ship of U.S. Empire
    01 Jul 2026
    The settler colonial state is now more corrupt and more unequal than even the genocidal "founding fathers" imagined.
  • Jacqueline Luqman
    Disaster Capitalism In Haiti Gives A Glimpse Into the Imperialist Shock Doctrine That Could Rattle Venezuela Long After The Earthquakes
    01 Jul 2026
    The U.S. has attacked Venezuela through various means for decades and kidnapped President Maduro but is now claiming to assist with earthquake relief. If it's role in Haiti is any guide, that so-…
  • Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Fujimorismo 2.0: The Age of Keiko Fujimori: The Hard Right Advances in Latin America and the Caribbean, strengthening the Shield of the Americas
    01 Jul 2026
    Keiko Fujimori won the Peruvian presidency with help from the U.S. ambassador. Her victory solidifies the U.S. Shield of the Americas that is recolonizing the region.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us