Josh Silver

Josh Silver

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Josh Silver is the Executive Director of Free Press a national, nonpartisan organization that he co-founded with Robert McChesney and John Nichols in 2002 to engage citizens in media policy debates and create a more democratic and diverse media system. Prior to that, he was the
campaign manager of the successful ballot initiative for Clean Elections in
Arizona, director of development for the cultural arm of the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, D.C., and director of an international youth
exchange program. He has published extensively on media policy, campaign
finance and other public policy issues.

Blog Entries by Josh Silver

Moyers vs. Murdoch: Journalism vs. Megalomania

12 Comments | Posted June 10, 2008 | 12:06 PM (EST)


Rupert Murdoch's favorite megalomaniac Bill O'Reilly sent a crew to Minneapolis this weekend to stalk journalists Bill Moyers and Dan Rather. This probably doesn't surprise you. And that's exactly why Moyers and Rather were in Minneapolis. They were speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform, a gathering of 3,500...

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House Votes to Ban Pentagon Propaganda: Networks Still Silent

41 Comments | Posted May 24, 2008 | 04:57 PM (EST)


You probably didn't hear about the House voting to ban Pentagon propaganda last Thursday -- since the television networks have once again conveniently failed to cover the story.

But in a surprise move, a 2009 defense policy bill passed with an amendment, sponsored by Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), that...

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Senate Votes to Reverse FCC Decision Allowing Media Consolidation

79 Comments | Posted May 16, 2008 | 09:00 AM (EST)


Thursday night, the Senate cast a near-unanimous vote to reverse the Federal Communication Commission's December 2007 decision to let media companies own both a major TV or radio station and a major daily newspaper in the same city.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who introduced the rarely used "resolution...

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FCC Endorses Junk News, Calls Fox's TMZ and 700 Club 'Bona fide Newscasts'

25 Comments | Posted May 6, 2008 | 01:29 PM (EST)


Hard-hitting journalism is nearing extinction on television, and the Federal Communications Commission just threw another shovelful of dirt on its grave when it recently ruled that Rupert Murdoch's broadcast of TMZ and Pat Robertson's 700 Club meet the test for "a bona fide newscast." Bona fide newscast? You tell...

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Fox News Still Featuring Pentagon Pundits

16 Comments | Posted April 28, 2008 | 01:16 PM (EST)


The New York Times publishes an exposé on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon that most likely violate federal "covert propaganda" laws.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) calls for an investigation of the propaganda purveyors, especially those with business ties to the Pentagon.

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TV's Response to Pentagon Propaganda? Never Happened

40 Comments | Posted April 24, 2008 | 11:31 AM (EST)


Last week, it was a mudslinging debate hosted by ABC. This week, it's revelations of pro-war propaganda on nearly every major television news outlet.

The quest for quality journalism and for the truth about the fast sell on the Iraq war just hit a new low. And today,...

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Video: Pentagon Pundit Scandal in 4 Minutes

3 Comments | Posted April 21, 2008 | 02:19 PM (EST)


Yesterday, the New York Times exposed a secret Pentagon effort to spread favorable views of the war by recruiting and planting military analysts in the nation's news media.

These pundits became fixtures of war coverage on most major network, cable, radio and print news outlets without disclosing their...

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CNN Response to War Coverage Criticism? Just Call 'em "Rabid"

26 Comments | Posted March 26, 2008 | 04:30 PM (EST)


Last week, I reported on the Huffington Post about CNN's appalling coverage of anti-war protests that marked the five-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.

This week, CNN responded by mocking the criticism and dismissing it as "rabid."

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CNN Trivializes Iraq and Hits a New Low

130 Comments | Posted March 20, 2008 | 06:04 PM (EST)


On Wednesday, Wolf Blitzer and CNN 's "Best Political Team on Television" took their vapid approach to journalism to a new level when reporter Jeanne Moos satirized demonstrations against the war in Iraq.

Tongue and cheek reports are Moos's specialty, but the idea that CNN would sic her on...

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Spying & Telco Immunity: It's The System, Stupid!

Posted February 13, 2008 | 11:11 AM (EST)


On Tuesday, the Senate voted to allow the government to eavesdrop on foreign-based communications and to shield the largest phone companies from some 40 lawsuits alleging illegal wiretapping.

The level of corruption that this vote represents is simply staggering. Telephone companies broke the law when they handed over private...

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Don't Change the Channel. Change the System.

Posted January 18, 2008 | 02:05 PM (EST)


Media critic Eric Boehlert recently summed it up, "Virtually all the corporate press does these days is shallow, polling-based horse-race coverage, and now it can't even get that right." We've all had it with the way elections are covered. We've had it with vapid television news. And we've had...

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The FCC Voted: Time to Raise Hell

Posted December 18, 2007 | 01:44 PM (EST)


Today, Bush-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin rammed through a 3-2 partisan vote to remove the longstanding "newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership" ban that prohibits a local newspaper from owning TV and radio stations in the same market. Witness yet another shining moment: the Bush administration serving up a wholesale giveaway...

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Junk News Is Making Us Sick

Posted December 13, 2007 | 02:01 PM (EST)


Today in the Congress, powerful U.S. Senators from both parties berated FCC Chairman Kevin Martin about his plans to open the floodgates of media consolidation across America on December 18th. And Martin didn't flinch.

It's easy to stand firm when you're a Bush operative with the backing of the...

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Harry Potter vs. Big Media

Posted December 12, 2007 | 04:29 PM (EST)


In his rush to gut the nation's longstanding media ownership limits, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has not only angered the vast majority of Americans who think Big Media is already big enough.... he has angered a constituency with some serious clout: Harry Potter fans.

If that...

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Murdoch TV Station Moves from NYC to NJ...in Just 2 Hours!

Posted November 29, 2007 | 02:49 PM (EST)


On Wednesday night at a public hearing held at Rutgers University, two Federal Communications Commissioners, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and scores of activists berated Rupert Murdoch's WWOR-TV, Channel 9. Purchased in 2000 by Murdoch's NewsCorp., the Secaucus, New Jersey-based station has operated as if it were based in...

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FCC Chairman's Slick PR Can't Disguise Big Media Giveaway

Posted November 13, 2007 | 04:53 PM (EST)


Tuesday morning -- just three days after 1,000 people crowded into Seattle Town Hall to tell Kevin Martin's Federal Communications Commission not to allow further media consolidation -- the FCC Chairman released proposed rule changes that would allow one company to own a daily newspaper and a TV...

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Seattle Opens Can 'o Whoop Ass on FCC Chairman

Posted November 10, 2007 | 07:36 PM (EST)


On Friday night, some 1,000 people packed the Seattle Town Hall to say no to the Federal Communications Commission's plan to let the largest media companies further consolidate ownership. And it wasn't just a bunch of lefties.

The heavy hitters were there, and they gave the FCC Chairman an...

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Murdoch: Bad for Journalism, Bad for Democracy

Posted July 31, 2007 | 02:26 PM (EST)


Today's news that the Bancroft family has agreed to News Corp.'s $5 billion dollar buyout offer for Dow Jones, is a powerful reminder of how media consolidation is constantly eroding the foundational structures of our democracy.

America's founders understood that a truly free press -- enlivened by...

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Rumor Mill: Rupert Murdoch Poised to Purchase Wall Street Journal

Posted July 10, 2007 | 02:03 PM (EST)


Rupert Murdoch's move to acquire the Wall Street Journal is sending shock waves across the media industry, as well-documented reports fill the pages of our most credible newspapers and magazines detailing the media tycoon's consistent practice of using his media properties to advance his political ideology and business agenda: from...

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AT&T Moves to Take Over the Internet

Posted June 14, 2007 | 05:40 PM (EST)


Remember how the big phone companies tried to dismiss Net Neutrality as a "solution in search of a problem"? Well, here's the problem.

In an interview this week with the Los Angeles Times, AT&T Senior Vice President James Cicconi revealed that AT&T is developing technology designed to detect...

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