“In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.” MeanPoliticalDemocracyNewsPolitical SystemsBad News Author:Al Franken
“Because we don't have a Fairness Doctrine, and because we have further media consolidation, and because we have a craptastic corporate media, WE DON'T HAVE NEWS! We don't have an informed populous and we don't have a democracy... Everyone in the world knows that America, (in its current state, because of right-wingers) that the right wing arm of this country (that speaks for this country unfortunately) has no credibility when it comes to human rights or independent media.” KnowsWorldHumansCountryStatesAmericaSpeakDemocracyRightsMediaArmsNewsIndependentWingsHuman RightsCurrentsDoctrineCorporateFairnessCredibilityRight WingConsolidationIndependent Media Author:Janeane Garofalo
“Who should regulate the media? Who should control the press? The commentariat agonises, as if the choice was between state control through some autocratic press law or a new Press Complaints Commission redecorated with false teeth. But there is another way. Let journalists regulate themselves.... Let's have a little democracy in the media. Even in the Murdoch papers, the number of journalists who are irretrievably lawless and callous is quite small. Most of the disasters at the News of the World happened because its editors treated their staff in the style of Muammar Gaddafi.” IfsWorldWayShouldLittlesStatesLawChoicesNumbersDemocracyHappenedMediaStylePaperNewsPressesDisasterTeethTreatedJournalistEditorsStaffComplaintsPapersAnother WayCallousGaddafiMuammar Gaddafi Author:Neal Ascherson
“A democracy survives when its citizens have access to trustworthy and impartial sources of information, when it can discern lies from truth. Take this away and a democracy dies. The fusion of news and entertainment, the rise of a class of celebrity journalists on television who define reporting by their access to the famous and the powerful, the retreat by many readers into the ideological ghettos of the Internet and the ruthless drive by corporations to destroy the traditional news business are leaving us deaf, dumb and blind.” LyingDiesPowerfulClassDemocracyInformationTelevisionSourceReaderInternetCitizensNewsBlindLeavingEntertainmentAccessTraditionalDumbJournalistCorporationsRetreatDeafRuthlessIdeologicalGhettoTrustworthyFusion Author:Chris Hedges
“Liberty lives in protest and democracy prospers under conditions of change. When we travel about the world and come to a country whose newspapers are filled with bad news we feel that liberty lives in that land. When we come to a country whose newspapers are filled with good news, we feel differently.” WorldFeelsCountryLibertyDemocracyLandConditionsNewsFilledNewspapersProtestGood NewsBad News Author:Daniel Patrick Moynihan
“I think democracy fails under a variety of conditions and one of the conditions occurs when people don't have the ability to get the kind of information they need to make up their mind. Ideologically, I don't care much for FOX News. But the truth is that, as long as there are countervailing points of view available on the spectrum, it doesn't matter.” PeopleThinkingNeedsMindKindLongMatterCareAbilityViewsDemocracyFailingConditionsInformationTruth IsNewsDon't CareAvailablePoint Of ViewVarietyI Don't CareFoxesSpectrumFox News Author:Howard Dean
“A profound transformation is happening here. The framers of our nation never envisioned these huge media giants; never imagined what could happen if big government, big publishing and big broadcasters ever saw eye-to-eye in putting the public's need for news second to their own interests. I approach the end of my own long run believing more strongly than ever that the quality of journalism and the quality of democracy are inextricably joined ... .” IfsNeedsBelieveLongEndsBigsGovernmentHappensEyeRunningNationsInterestMy OwnQualityDemocracySawsMediaHugeApproachNewsHappeningsTransformationProfoundJournalismGiantsPublishingLong RunsBig GovernmentBroadcastersFramers Author:Bill Moyers
“The polls demonstrate that 50 percent of Americans who get their news from TV think Saddam Hussein was behind the Twin Towers attack. Man, have they got ways for getting half-truths out right away now, thanks to TV! I think TV is a calamity in a democracy.” ThinkingMenWayBehindsHalfDemocracyTvsNewsPercentThanksTwinsTowersSaddamHusseinPollsCalamityHalf TruthTwin Towers Author:Kurt Vonnegut
“The good news is I think there are a lot of young people certainly who were involved in my campaigns, and I think continue to be involved in work not just politically, but through nonprofits and other organizations, that can carry this hard work of democracy forward.” PeopleThinkingHardYoungDemocracyHard WorkInvolvedNewsOrganizationCampaignsGood NewsNonprofits Author:Barack Obama
“Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have raised ignorance to ideology and stupefied an entire political party. No more roguish and rowdy band of predators ever did more to demean and despoil the democracy on whose carcass they feed.” PoliticalPartyDemocracyIgnoranceBandNewsRaisedIdeologyFoxesPolitical PartiesPredatorFox NewsRowdy Author:Bill Moyers