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So why is it even important to have independent media? And what is independent media?
Independent media is any news source that’s not under the control of a media conglomerate. In the US, five companies control a large majority of the information that we see: CBS Corporation (formerly Viacom; they own everything from Nickelodeon to CNET to Dreamworks to Comedy Central to Katie Couric), Disney (they own everything from ABC to ESPN), News Corp (everything from Faux News to MySpace to the Dow Jones), Time Warner (everything from HBO to CNN to Popular Science), and Comcast/GE (they each own about half of NBC Universal). The bad thing about this situation is that these are hugely powerful corporations controlling a majority of the political and social information reaching Americans, meaning that if these corporations have agendas (which they clearly do – for instance, GE is one of the nation’s largest military industrial companies and coal turbine producers and…) then the media must first filter through that bias before it reaches millions of people. Do you ever wonder why there’s rarely any substance on networks like CNN? Why things like corporate crime or the prison problem or the military industrial complex are rarely brought up in the mainstream media? Or why investigative journalism is so rare these days? This is it!
So the importance of independent media is to break free from those chains. Once massive corporations with vested interests aren’t controlling the flow of information, journalists are free to do their thing again. And do it they do. Here’s the list:
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Mother Jones is a great magazine that has a lot of honest, progressive, and investigative journalism (that you can get for free online!). If you read Time or Newsweek now, you probably should be reading Mother Jones.
Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman is a great daily news show, with a great website that includes a blog and the show for free, from Pacifica that also broadcasts on many radio and TV stations and has a podcast. Goodman reads the headlines and then interviews one or two or three guests for an hour each day. She frequently highlights dissenters or grassroots organizers or other interesting guests that you won’t see on the nightly news.
Pacifica itself is a progressive radio network that has over 100 affiliate stations across the country.
1360 AM in the greater Philadelphia area, while we’re on the subject of radio, has a slate of interesting progressive shows, including a rare election integrity show.
Seven Stories Press is a book publisher that "publishes works of the imagination and political titles by voices of conscience." They have published Kurt Vonnegut, David Swanson, Howard Zinn, Ralph Nader, Mike Gravel, and many other people worth listening to.
Powell’s Books is an independent bookstore chain in Portland, Oregon that also has a strong presence online. Think of it as a better alternative to Amazon.
Current TV is cable channel and website (co-founded and partially owned by Al Gore, iirc) that features a lot of fluff and a lot of great journalism. They’re very hip, although don’t let that turn you off. They also offer some decent video podcasts. And remember those journalists captured by North Korea? Just as a side note, those people worked for Current. They’ve got a lot of interesting stuff, including a system on their website where you can vote for the best viewer created content to get on TV.
The Real News Network is a blossoming online video news operation that is gathering journalists and money in order to turn into a kind of investigative, in depth TV news network. They’ve got deals worked out with McClatchy and TiVo so far, and they’re making great progress. For now, you can check them out at their website and Youtube (and DONATE if you want to see a quality news network!).
Alternet is an online news site that has all of the essentials on their list of tabs – politics, sex, water… and more, of course. They’ve got lots of progressive and thought-provoking content and I highly recommend them.
OpEdNews is a website similar to Daily Kos, in that the content is mostly created by readers, but they are much more free in their speech and news-site-like. It can sometimes be tough to sift through the mediocre stuff to get to the great stuff, but it is there.
Mother Earth News is one of the best magazines out there. It’s a combination of environmental reporting and quality DIY/homesteading stuff. It is absolutely the best environmental magazine out there, in my opinion, and essential reading for anyone trying to live more sustainably and free from the iron grip of corporations. Their website is a treasure trove, as well.
The Atlantic Yards Report is a single investigative project that focuses on a nearly $5 billion development in Brooklyn.
BoingBoing.net is a good source for privacy and technology news.
The Hightower Lowdown is an entertaining newsletter put out by Jim Hightower. There isn’t much to it and it’s extremely biased, but it’s a good read and he’s a reliable progressive and populist.
The Progressive Populist is an anti-corporate newspaper and online publication.
Extra! is The Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting group’s media watchdog magazine.
The Brad Blog, which is mostly written by Brad Friedman. It focuses a lot on election integrity, on which Friedman does a lot of investigating. There are also other subjects of interest to progressives covered.
Anything else?
25 Comments
It is also important to find toolkits that you can use to evaluate bias in mainstream media. To me, independent media becomes tedious.
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman’s Manufacturing Consent is the gold standard in an analysis of how the media frames its presentation of the issues of the day in order to reinforce the prerogative of power.
Dissent has also been manufactured of recent, in the way that mainstream “left” and “right” media play each others’ bases off against one another ritualistically. Media directs attention, kind of a metaframing, to representations of hot button divisive issues, properly framed for each side to demean one another. This kind of follow the bouncing ball direction of attention away from the structural problems is one way that power keeps itself going.
Whenever power would direct your attention, question why it wants you to look in that direction before you comply.
Nice work, rossi. Let me add:
The Head On Radio Network,
and,
WMNF 88.5 FM
in Tampa. Both excellent sources for independent voices.
Great diary Rossl and an excellent idea to put all of these wonderful alternative news sources in one spot.
May I suggest a few additions? They include:
1. Glenn Greenwald’s blog over at Slate.com Greenewald is excellent especially on constitutional law issues and government policy. He’s a bit wordy but well worth the effort.
2. the McClatchy newspaper group. Not sure if they qualify here because they have some big papers but they seem to be fair minded, critical and independent. http://www.mcclatchy.com
3. Z-magazine. A left leaning blog group that features some outstanding writers. Here, for example, you’ll find Paul Street who wrote a brilliant essay on Obama (“Obama as Predicted”) at: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23196
4. The Progressive Magazine (also online). Founded by the greatest of all the progressive politicians, Robert M. LaFollette. 100 years of great articles by some of the leading progressive thinkers.
5. Wisconsin Public Radio (www.wpr.org). Listen online anywhere in the world to their various streams that include classical music and the ideas network. Funded by the Wisconsin government and through public donations.
6. The Manchester (U.K.) Guardian. o.k. it’s a big newspaper (online too) but it is a famous fighter for labour-liberal causes and gives invaluable insights as to how other countries see the U.S.A. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
7. Progressive Historians at http://www.progressivehistorians.com/ It’s an academic group but if you want in-depth discussion of historical issues from a progressive framework, here’s a good place to start.
8. The Nation: no longer recommended.
9. Truthdig. http://www.truthdig.org Lots of wonderful essays from some of the leading progressive-left thinkers including Amy Goodman, Robert Scheer, Chomsky etc.
10. The Nader Page. Need I say more? http://www.nader.org/
11. Obama’s Scandal List. A blog compiled by Hugh who often blogs here. Shows all of Obama’s missteps. http://obamascandalslist.blogspot.com/
12. Bill Moyer’s Journal. Moyers is that rarity in American public life: a former public servant who has grown more progressive and liberal over time. Great recent interview featuring Matt Taibbi and Robert Kuttner on Obama. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12182009/watch.html
13. Balinization. Another blog by a leading constitutional law teacher. http://balkin.blogspot.com
14. http://www.pollster.com The leading independent polling source. Not progressive per say but highly respected.
15. Physicians for National Health Program: http://www.pnhp.org
Lot’s more but these are some excellent places.
Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll try to check them out when I have time.
Marcos, what do you mean that independent media can be tedious?
I have “A Guide to Alternative News and Commentary” here:
http://www.nolanchart.com/article5077.html
On some international stuff independent media is indispensable.
But on domestic coverage, independent media can get very self-referential and cliquish, unable to accurately cover progressives with any degree of journalistic independence, too endeared to the veal pen and unwilling to challenge failure.
I know its not independent media, but Maddow and Olbermann tonight were spewing an itemization of everything bad the Republicans did and everything good the Democrats did that has been pent up for the last two weeks and finally uncorked. The last thing I need is to spend my time watching Rahm Emmanuel’s line.
I like to be challenged in my view, and try to watch and read many different perspectives using the Manufacturing Consent filter to figure out where they’re coming from and what that means about what they say.
I will echo ZNet and reading Paul Street.
But first and foremost I would recommend blackagendareport.com with the great Glen Ford, Bruce Dixon, and Margaret Kimberley. You will read about stories and perspectives that are years ahead of everybody. Look at their recent story on the Nigerian bomber and how it relates to Africom. “Is the Detroit Nigerian “Terrorist” a Patsy?” Super smart people.
PLEASE DONATE and why don’t a group of us go to their site every Wednesday when they publish their weekly stories? Mark Thompson has them on his Sirius Left radio show every Wednesday also.
Blackcommentator.org is also good.
2nd to blackagendareport.com, I would recommend “Counterpunch”. Subscribe to their magazine which you can’t get online right away. Counterpunch.org
The New Internationalist deals with economic injustice around the world.
this post is front page stuff and gives me an idea, I believe our “news desk” should be called “independant news desk”
much more appropriate
I agree with perris that this diary merits front-paging.
A valuable source of analysis and commentary on the web, around since the mid-1990s, is Robert Parry’s Consortium News. Parry broke many of the major stories of the Iran-Contra scandals, including on the Contra-drug connection, back in the 1980s before being edged out of AP and going independent. This site could be and do so much more if it weren’t continually strapped for cash, which is one of the great shames of the progressive community. I strongly recommend that folks check it out and consider Consortium News for their first deductible contribution of 2010.
I second rossl’s recommendation of FAIR’s Extra! and would add that FAIR also produces a superb half-hour radio program, Counterspin, which airs weekly on community and Pacifica stations. I download the podcast religiously. (I’ve been friends with the FAIR folk for more than 20 years now.)
Great resource!
I’d like to add http://axisoflogic.com to that list. A great site with timely coverage of stuff that matters. I’d suggest my own site too but it would be a conflict of interest to do so (and we’re curators ala digg etc., no original content yet).
nostromo
Nice job, rossl.
I would add Utne Reader. Its 6 yearly issues gather the best of independent and alternative media. Website: http://www.utne.com
Great list, and also thanks for the additions by commenters.
Let me add Pacifica’s Flashpoints (available via podcast). I also find Against the Grain (C.S. Song and Sasha Lilly) to be among the most provocative interview shows out there. Flashpoints is more newsy and Against the Grain is more scholarly. Both are available via pacifica and are also on itunes. I also find Monthly Review and their email newsfeed to be very worthwhile: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/
Great post,Rossl. I’m a fan of Sibel Edmonds site, http://www.boilingfrogspost.com.
Interesting that no one mentions LinkTV and Free Speech TV(FSTV); what’s up with y’all?
CounterPunch is also not mentioned nor -for differing pov – lewrockwell.com (libertarian,self described as “An anti-state/pro-market site on the net run by the president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.”)
I used to do my own blog and on the left side is a bunch of news sources I found useful.
Wow, lots of great suggestions. Looking at all of these, I’m not sure why anyone still watches CNN or MSNBC or NBC or any of those stations anymore…
That reminds me. The progressive news aggregation and digest site Cursor has sadly been out of business since October 2008, but its home page is still up, and I go there frequently because of its fabulous blogroll and list of media links.
Exactly ! Want to bring down the CMM? Don’t listen or watch them. And get others to do the same.
Here’s the now classic Bill Moyers documentary “Buying the War,” about the systematic and highly coordinated media effort to sell us the Iraq war and trivialize and exclude all skeptical views:
Only McClatchy asked any hard questions.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
As a window to the world, I recommend Google News. Click on English speaking countries and read their take on Copenhagen, health care, education, Obama, the financial meltdown, Iraq… Most Americans would be very surprised to learn that mainstream opinion, even in the countries most similar to the US (UK, Canada, Australia) is far, far to the left of the US, including its progressive bloggers.
If you are able to read French, Spanish, or any other language, read the media in that language. That will take you even further to the left. Of course, if you a fluent in a foreign language, you probably already know that.
The ProgressiveRadioNetwork.com is adding 20,000 new listeners per month. The founder, Gary Null, has done a lot of investigative reporting, himself, especially in the area of health and nutrition. He hasn’t yet made much use of his network to help organize activists (a notable exception is his anti-forced vaccine work), but I suspect that that’ll be changing. He has announced that he is providing back to back time on his network for Greens, Libertarians, Constitutionalists and Independents to have a voice, and has expressed a wish to have them form a united third party. I suspect that he may go well beyond that to help bring this about.
Excellent points, metamars. I’ll check it out. Lots of good ideas in the diary and the comments. I second the: why be a viewer of the mainstream media when we have so many better options out there?
There really is NO reason anymore to watch CNN, ABC or to subscribe to the Washington Post. Your time spent doing so can be better spent elsewhere.
Anti-war radio is pretty good. He interviewed Glenn Greenwald a couple weeks ago.
Except that most Americans prefer to spend most of their media consumption time consuming what I call “fluff” – shows like Desperate Housewives. IMO, to fully bypass lamestream media, an alternative, internet based lamestream media replacement should take an “embrace and extend” approach, as was done by Microsoft in it’s meteoric growth.
Yes, even fluff like the most boring ‘reality shows’ – which nevertheless get millions of eyeballs – wouldn’t be so toxic to citizenship if it was broken up not by commercials, but rather by truth-telling ‘uncommercials’. The other major substitution would be featuring a flagship newsprogram which has the excellent production values that we are now used to. (I’m thinking of a somewhat jazzed up therealnews.com; as much as I respect Amy Goodman, I am interested in reaching my less-cerebral fellow citizens, who need to be simultaneously entertained while they imbibe their news. They vote too…)
Such a media would be subscription based, and citizens could help propagate it by buying subscriptions for their friends and relatives, utilizing a ‘gift cue’. The idea being that recipients of the gift are informed that, while their subscription lasts for 1 year, if they assume the subcription payments, the original donor will then have the next member of his/her list presented with a 1 year gift subscription.
So, if a subscription costs $20/month, and I become a donor at $60/month, I can gift subscriptions 3 at a time. If recipients take the hint and subscribe on their own, on average every 3 months, then I can propagate subscriptions to new users at a rate of 12 new subscribers per year.
To make this work, you basically need a set top box that connects to your broadband internet connection, as well as your digital TV. Manufacturing such a set top box would probably be less than $100. It’s that expensive because, to be economical, it needs to have a hard drive, and pre-subscribed-to shows are then downloaded via peer-to-peer networking. So, it won’t quite replace current cable TV, in terms of convenience. OTOH, having shows downloaded automatically is a convenience you don’t get with most TV service. (I think TiVo does this.) I suppose the only live-streaming would be of previews and program listings. Program listings are basically text, so this is not going to chew up a lot of bandwidth.
I’m not an MBA, but obviously you can fold $100 into a 12 month subscription pretty easily. Worst case is you just add $8/month. Maybe you could find wealth matching donors to pay the cost of the set top box, up front, on a matching basis. (You supply a 1 year commitment, and they supply the box.) Another idea for a deal is that they essentially lend the money, by buying boxes and then getting paid back by portions of subscription payments.
One thing you definitely don’t want is commercial or government money. I suppose an exception for green industries, especially local ones, could be made.
I think the software to run such a TV station could be hacked from the open source Miro.
Also check out watching America