Among topics discussed on the show are the significance and likely fate of net neutrality, the commercialization of the Internet, and the future of our endangered print media and, for that matter, of serious journalism itself; the crippling effect of income inequality and the importance of grassroots activism in countering organized wealth in our society; the continuing encroachment of for-profit corporations into the public sector; and what a “post-capitalist democracy” might look like.
The Rag Blog’s Roger Baker also participates in the discussion.
Bob McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was the co-founder of the influential media reform organization, Free Press, that has played a major role in the fight for a free Internet. Bob was previously our guest on Rag Radio in February 2011.
The Progressive’s Matthew Rothschild says we should read Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century, “and discover how capitalism is eating our democracy and devouring the web, and what you can do about it.” According to Sen. Bernie Sanders, McChesney “reveals once again why he is one of the thinkers who really matter to American society.”
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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