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


  • Jacqueline Luqman
    The Perfect Victim Narrative Applied To Foreign Policy Only Keeps U.S. Imperialism Alive
    23 Sep 2026
    The demand to call out alleged crimes in Iran or Cuba while those countries face annihilation from the U.S. and Israel is a refusal to see those people as human beings worthy of protection.
  • Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
    Twentieth Century Red Scares in the United States
    23 Sep 2026
    Red Scares are a recurring feature of the U.S. political tradition aimed at criminalizing anticapitalist politics through accusations of foreign infiltration and conspiracy. The NSPM-7 and the report…
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Niger Thwarts Attempted Coup Amid Ongoing Threats to the Alliance of Sahel States
    23 Sep 2026
    For several years, three landlocked West African states have undergone political transformations designed to turn the page on French neo-colonialism.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    U.S. Hands off Mali, U.S. Hands off the AES, U.S. Out of Africa, and Shut Down AFRICOM
    23 Sep 2026
    The U.S. is considering drone strikes and sanctions against the Alliance of Sahel States under the guise of counterterrorism, but the real objective is to regain neo-colonial control over African…
  • Roberta Rivolta
    Western Activism and the Axis of Resistance
    23 Sep 2026
    Western pro-Palestinian activism isolates Palestine from its regional allies, depoliticizing its struggle and reinforcing colonial divisions.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us