Media, Democracy, and the Left: Seeing the Bigger Picture

If you had attended the most recent National Conference for Media Reform, held in Memphis, Tennessee, this past January and sponsored by Free Press (www.freepress.net), you might think that the media reform movement is on a roll.

There was a palpable sense of momentum in Memphis, as more than 3,000 attendees— a substantial increase over previous conferences in Madison, Wisconsin, and St. Louis, Missouri—filled the convention center to hear speakers such as Jesse Jackson, Bill Moyers, David Brancaccio, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Van Jones, Geena Davis, and Jane Fonda preach eloquently to the choir.

There is, indeed, reason for optimism. Thanks to people like the Memphis conferees, a lot of independent media are emerging, especially on the Internet. They run the gamut from independent news services, such as OneWorld and the video-based The Real News, to community broadcasting and a plethora of local, small-scale, and left-lean...