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.