Discussion:Nonprofit News Organization Formed in Chicago

"The cooperative has start-up financing from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and assistance from WTTW, a Chicago public television station. It is in talks with the WBEZ, the local public radio station, about collaboration."

Link to article: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/non-profit-group-to-provide-news-for-chicago-edition-of-the-times/?scp=1&sq=nonprofit&st=cse

Thanks to http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2009/10/nonprofit-news-organization-founded-in-chicago.html for the heads up on this.

Perhaps one day all our news will come from "nonprofits." Hmmm....

I think it was in 1996 that we sold the public airways to the highest bidder (Telecommunications Act of 1996). It was yet another huge theft and crime against the American people. There is coverage of this crime in a book by Thomas Frank http://tcfrank.com/books/one-market-under-god/

Some might have fond memories of what was referred to as the public airways. YOU owned them, in perpetuity, but not now. There is NO SUCH THING ANYMORE. They were sold for you, in what was a truly sweet deal, to certain monopoly interests, at the 1996 "price".

The FCC still has some regulatory authority, but in practice, it makes for a toothless tiger (the the electro magnetic spectrum which includes the broadcast spectrum is larger, of course, that what was ever devoted to strictly public use/purposes).

When we had public airways, all people who used radio frequency to make broadcasts were seen to have a public duty. I believe the FCC was also given jurisdiction over bandwidth as well, but I'm not too sure of that (probably so since I think they regulate cable).

Part of that public duty was seen to present news, and news divisions of the major networks were money losers. So, such divisions were de facto non-profits.

This was before the entertainment channels arose which we have today, and which we call news networks. Which is like comparing Olympic wrestling with the corny (fake) wrestling you see on TV. The purpose of corporate news today is to constantly present "Balloon Boy" type stories to take the minds of the American people off of what's really going on behind the scenes AND to glorify the lifestyles of the rich and famous while the middle class goes down the tubes. After all, if you're not rich and famous, something must be wrong with you, right? So, we can trust these rich people to do what's best (and what they do best is steal).

What good could you about about Bush? That he got a tax package through to help rich people get richer?

I will say one thing, he did sign the American with Disabilities Act Amendments Act in 2008 (which made improvements to the ADA), but only because he felt he owed it to his dad, in my opinion.

But George Bush was objectively the worst president we've had in the history of our country. In my opinion, it's hard to bash a guy like this, you just state the facts, and stand back in awe. The moral of the story is that the world is too complex today to elect a stupid guy or girl as president.

One thing that seems to be totally forgotten about Bush, and it's that HE and TONTO (Cheney) were in office and sworn to protect the country on 911. Yet, today, they see themselves as experts on security. What irony!

Frankly, I had no problem with what NPR did, I think they should have done more, and maybe we would not have had the disaster of Iraq. And, they served as a contrast to Fix News anyway.

But, in the big picture, BOTH political parties are totally sold out to the lobbyists today. We've lost our country to the money interests, and only we can take it back.

Yes, it's up to the public to do their own research the best they can, make the library your friend while we still have them (especially the reference section, where a few facts can still be found).

Nothing like Car talk, , what do you know, even that squirrel "This American life" has some good stuff.

I don't know about that. I remember radio before Reagan got in office, and I remember some pretty liberal shows on private radio. Frankly, I remember this up until about 1987. Of course, by 1987, unregulated greed had totally taken over as the American creed, and look where we are today. Now, we are bailing out the market lovers, privatizers, outsourcers, and the super greedy: seems that the worshipers of the market couldn't live by the market, and they went crying on the government's shoulder (meaning your shoulder and your wallet).

Right now, there's a radio program called The Ed Show that is getting some play on radio, and he's a liberal, if by liberal you mean he still has a healthy distrust of the corporate line; and has refused to give in to bigotry and false religion as political tools to manipulate people.

Having said all this, however, I don't think the Republicans and the others who have sold out to mammon have anything to worry about as long as Larry Summers is sitting on the team in a Democratic White House. So, we have a LONG way to go before we really get this cleaned up.

As to newspapers, well each party had their own. Kind of like TV today. It’s Ed vs. Hannity, Obbermann vs Beck, and O'Reilly vs Matthews. I love surfing between the channels. My real favorites are CNBC and Morning Joe, those folks talk over top of each other, they really get it on!

Yes, government has been corrupt for a long time, but this is a different level of corruption simply because the corporations are so much bigger now.

It's like this myth we perpetuate about bargaining for contracts. Like the consumer really bargains for his credit card contract with a mega-bank. Twenty-six pages long. There is no bargaining, it's take it or leave it.

The thing is, most Americans never stop to ask themselves the important question, which is WHY do they need the credit card to begin with....it's because their real incomes have been dropping for years and they need it to makes ends meet...why? See my next paragraph for the answer.

In the end, it's up to the American people to discover that they've been sold down the river in the interests of a few at the top of the financial heap. I mean the top 1%, or let's say top 10%, that we've given the country to since Reagan revolted us.

I think we are beginning to get an inkling that we've been screwed, since the people that told us we had to live or die by the market, suddenly decided they didn't want to die by the market, and ran to mama in the form of the U.S. Treasury for a bailout when their death seemed imminent.  Their bailout, and our bill.

We get exactly the government we deserve. That never changes.

One of the things I enjoy about your posts is that you never let facts get in the away of your opinions ... whether it is the steady rising medium income over the last 40 years or who carries the burden of taxes, etc. Yes, some firms were bailed out but not necessarily the stockholders, take AIG for an example. If you purchased AIG in 2004 and it is now worth 97% less, do you feel bailed out? And of course the Democratic are saints and never enrich themselves ... unfortunately there are not enough Mother Teresas to go around. But then I look at your profile and see where you practice, your clients are ones who life has often given the shaft so you have the right to be cynical.

I believe it was Wilson Churchill that said "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried."

PS This is too much fun! I think it was Lincoln that said (or at least it sounds like something that he would have said): "If you wrestle with a pig in the mud, after awhile you realize the pig enjoys it." I am enjoying it!

Greenspan used to be accused of 'taking away the punchbowl' by raising rates (actually my research says that expression was developed for the last great Fed chairman to hold the post, William McChesney Martin), but now the punchbowl of easy credit is being drained, or transplanted into direct subsidies to keep the economy 'growing.' What else do we call 'cash for clunkers' or 'First time homebuyer credits.'

In 2007 foolish lenders gave my son-in-law a mortgage; this year they could not get approved for a simple car loan though they manage to keep their house.....my other son-in-law is paid $44 an hour as a trades person but needs his mother to co-sign for a lease.

As the S&L crisis was roiling markets, James Grant, another wise man, asked how we would pay for that bailout. He feared we would use inflated dollars to do so. He didn't realize that idiots like Ferdinanc St. Germain and Jake Garn, liberal Democrat and conservative Republican, would ride to the rescue,or others in the 90s would get rid of Glass Steagall. Simply insuring up to 100K of deposits gave banks monies to lend, and they needed borrowers, and so the boom was on. Letting banks become more than banks fueled the fire.

What a mess we have made!