But since the rollback of the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule under the Reagan administration, and the subsequent death knell, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, news--or something at least called it-- "has become very profitable.
This means, unfortunately, progressives need a sugar daddy.The problem is, though, that since most of the wealthiest people have a personal stake in staying as rich as possible while paying next to nothing (and in some cases, actually nothing) in taxes, they naturally gravitate toward the party whose raison d'être lies solely in massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations-- "the republican party.
The media is apparently not interested in fulfilling its responsibility as "the fourth estate".
What are media personalities going to do the day the new president accomplishes getting libel laws rewritten and starts locking them up, as he has threatened to do? Think their pathetic attempts at appeasement like we saw last week from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, and Jeff Bezos in his failure to allow The Washington Post editorial board to endorse a presidential candidate, are going to be considered, or are they just going to look like a sorry, sad bunch of sycophants afraid of mean things being said about them?
As Thom Hartmann wrote four years ago: "Democrats Can't Win if They Don't Play".
While we're striving for it, below are some of my go-to alternative news sites and podcasts. (And, yes, a few are from MSNBC hosts.)
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Semafor - An intelligent, transparent global news platform for breaking stories, analysis and video
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The Progressive - A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good
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(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).




