SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
June, 09 2011, 03:34pm EDT
Thursday June, 09 2011, 03:34pm EDT
Contact:
Timothy Karr: 201-533-8838,,tkarr@freepress.net
Free Press: FCC Report Falls Far Short of Real Solutions
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission released its long-awaited report on the future of media, now re-titled "The Technology and Information Needs of Communities." The report is the result of more than a year of research, and was presented as a rare opportunity to respond to a crisis facing journalism and its negative effect on the public, and inform a proactive public interest media policy course for the digital age.
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission released its long-awaited report on the future of media, now re-titled "The Technology and Information Needs of Communities." The report is the result of more than a year of research, and was presented as a rare opportunity to respond to a crisis facing journalism and its negative effect on the public, and inform a proactive public interest media policy course for the digital age.
Free Press, along with more than 30 media reform and journalism organizations and more than 9,000 citizens, submitted detailed comments to the FCC in 2010, suggesting a number of actions and policy changes that would help provide more quality news and information to local communities.
(Read the comments and recommendations here: https://www.freepress.net/resource/free-press-future-media-comments).
Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:
"We are still reviewing the voluminous document, but at first glance it appears to be a major disappointment. The report discusses many important ideas, but where the FCC actually has the power to help local communities, the agency abdicates its responsibility in the areas. Worse yet, instead of striking a bold path forward, the FCC chairman appears to be backing away from the positive, though baby steps made by his Republican predecessors on the issues of competition, localism and diversity.
"While we commend Steve Waldman and his team for the countless hours they spent reaching out and listening to different stakeholders, we're troubled that the report's conclusions seem disconnected from its own evidence. The report does highlight a number of promising policy ideas--many proposed by Free Press--including tax policy changes that would support nonprofit news outlets and encourage the sale of media outlets to diverse owners. However, these and other positive recommendations made in the report are beyond the scope of the FCC's authority.
"The biggest take away from the agency's report is that there is still a crisis in quality, local news. However, oddly, the FCC report seems to embrace policies that would make this problem even worse. We are especially disappointed that the Commission is abandoning enhanced disclosure that requires broadcasters to report how much - or how little - local news and programming they air. In essence, this hides the problem this report was intended to help resolve by making it harder to find evidence of the problem.
"We can't make smart policy if we don't know what's going on in our media. It's ironic that the authors spent so much time and effort gathering and analyzing data on the problems facing the media, yet the report concludes that one solution is to collect less data on the problems with existing local media.
"It is also stunning that the report hedges, and even seems in some instances to embrace more destructive local media consolidation as the answer to the crisis in journalism. The FCC's own data shows that prior consolidation and cross-ownership lead to an overall decrease in local news production. If the FCC decides to relax, waive, or ignore its own rules that prevent the formation of local media monopolies, it may temporarily help pad the profits of the large conglomerates, but it will not cure what ails journalism or the media industry.
"The release of this report is not the end of the discussion. The only way to ensure vibrant, quality journalism--and a healthy democracy--is to engage the public so starved for meaningful local news and information today. We hope that this report can still serve as a catalyst for better public policy to address the serious problems the document identifies."
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.
(202) 265-1490LATEST NEWS
'Laboratory of Cruelty': MSF Calls for Immediate Dismantling of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
"In MSF's nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians."
Aug 07, 2025
The international medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières on Thursday called for the immediate shuttering of the Israel-U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, denouncing the distribution sites it operates as "essentially death traps."
Backing up its condemnation, MSF released a new analysis—titled, "This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing"—which "documents the horrors witnessed" by the group's staff over recent weeks and the deadly failures of GHF, a group conceived of by the Israeli government with the backing of the Trump administration and staffed by private U.S. contractors after the United Nations-run distribution infrastructure, powered by hundreds of cooperating NGOs, was eviscerated by Israel earlier this year.
"Children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds gunned down at distribution points," said MSF's general director Raquel Ayora in a statement. "In MSF's nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians."
"The GHF distribution sites masquerading as 'aid' have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty," says Ayora. "This must stop now."
According to the report:
MSF operates two primary healthcare centres in southern Gaza located in close proximity to the GHF distribution sites. Between 7 June and 24 July 2025, these health centres received 1,380 injured people, including 28 dead bodies from the GHF sites. This represents only a fraction of the total number of people killed and injured at the distribution sites. MSF's two health centres—due to their sheer proximity to the GHF sites—now place biweekly orders for body bags.
Over a seven-week period in June and July 2025, MSF staff treated 174 people for gunshot wounds originating from the GHF sites. The vast majority of those injured—96 percent—were young men. This reflects a grim survival strategy: families are sending the youngest and fittest to retrieve food.
The report includes testimony from Palestinians who survived the carnage they experienced at the GHF-run sites.
"We're being slaughtered," said Mohammed Riad Tabasi, a patient treated at the MSF Al-Mawasi clinic in southern Gaza. "I've been injured maybe 10 times. I saw it with my own eyes, about 20 corpses around me. All of them shot in the head, in the stomach."
Joining an international chorus condemning the U.S.-Israeli aid effort—which was criticized loudly by humanitarian aid experts from the moment of its conception—MSF called "for the immediate dismantling of the GHF scheme; the restoration of the U.N.-coordinated aid delivery mechanism" and called on governments worldwide—but "especially the United States"—as well as private donors to "suspend all financial and political support for the GHF, whose sites are essentially death traps."
Trump Pushes Blatantly Unconstitutional Plan for New Mid-Decade Census
"Donald Trump has no power to alter either the timing or who is counted," said one prominent elections attorney.
Aug 07, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pushed for a new census to be drawn up in a move that would flatly violate the United States Constitution, which states explicitly that the census shall be conducted once every ten years and shall count all people within each state.
In a post on his Truth Social page, Trump said that he had "instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024."
The president then added that "people who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS."
Many constitutional law experts, however, were quick to point out that Trump lacks any kind of power to demand the creation of a mid-decade census that excludes undocumented immigrants under the United States Constitution.
Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor of constitutional law at Georgia State College of Law, wrote on X that the "Constitution's text is plain" regarding the census and it doesn't allow for anything resembling Trump's plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count.
Kreis specifically pointed to the changes to the census made by the 14th Amendment, which demands that the census count "the whole number of persons in each State," as a legal dagger in the heart of Trump's scheme.
"The 14th Amendment's mandate that the census 'count[s] the whole number of persons in each State' governs us in no uncertain terms," he argued.
Elections attorney Marc Elias similarly dismissed Trump's plan as a flagrant violation of the Constitution.
"The Constitution dictates that the census is a count [of] 'all persons' conducted every 'ten years,'" he wrote on Bluesky. "Donald Trump has no power to alter either the timing or who is counted."
The United States Supreme Court in 2019 blocked the first Trump administration from adding a question about residents' citizenship to the 2020 census, and it's not clear how Trump's order for a new census excluding undocumented immigrants would be different from his prior attempt.
In addition to questions of constitutional legality, Trump's plan also has issues when it comes to sheer logistics.
Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida, argued that Trump's plan is wildly impractical given the resources and time needed to successfully conduct an accurate census.
"Just from a logistical standpoint it is not feasible to conduct a 'new' mid-decade census with accuracy," he wrote on Bluesky. "To give a sense of the scale of what is required, preparations are already underway for the *2030* census. This will add chaos to the Census Bureau and degrade the accuracy of the 2030 census."
CNN political reporter Aaron Blake also noted on X that it's unclear that excluding undocumented immigrants from the census would even be much of a political boon for the GOP. As evidence, Blake pointed to a 2020 estimate from Pew Research Center projecting that Republican-controlled states such as Florida and Texas would each lose a seat if their undocumented immigrant populations weren't counted, which would balance out projected GOP gains in Alabama and Ohio under such circumstances.
'We're Fast Stumbling Into Stagflation,' Expert Warns as Unemployment Rolls Hit 4-Year High Under Trump
"In contrast with the president's assertion of bustling job creation," said The Century Foundation's Andrew Stettner, "Americans can't get off of unemployment benefits in an economy that has stopped adding jobs outside of healthcare."
Aug 07, 2025
The flow of abysmal U.S. economic data continued Thursday with the release of figures showing that the number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits has reached its highest level in nearly four years, heightening concerns that the Trump administration is pushing the country toward a period of "stagflation."
"Today's unemployment report, coupled with last week's jobs data, suggests that we're fast stumbling into stagflation, with fledgling jobs growth and rising prices," Andrew Stettner, unemployment insurance expert at The Century Foundation, said in a statement following the new Labor Department numbers.
The department said that 1.97 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits during the week ending July 26, an increase of 38,000 compared to the previous week.
"In contrast with the president's assertion of bustling job creation," said Stettner, "Americans can't get off of unemployment benefits in an economy that has stopped adding jobs outside of healthcare."
The government figures were released a day after private data showed that employment in the U.S. services sector fell last month as prices rose. Meanwhile, U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in July at the fastest pace in nine months, even as President Donald Trump claimed his erratic tariff regime would revive the sector.
"Private data confirms the government numbers, and firing the head of BLS can't change that," said Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), referring to Trump's decision to terminate Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in the wake of last week's terrible U.S. jobs report—calling into question the reliability of future federal data.
"Republicans are killing jobs and feeding inflation," Moore added. "Trump is making stagflation great again."
"Trump's economy of uncertainty is leading to widespread anxiety, with more than 3 in 4 Americans saying they are concerned about a possible recession."
The recent data—combined with surveys showing American consumers are increasingly struggling with the rising prices of groceries and other necessities—appears to vindicate warnings from economists and other analysts that the U.S. economy is in growing trouble under Trump's erratic stewardship.
"The risk of stagflation has risen meaningfully," Olu Sonola, an economist at Fitch Ratings, wrote in a client note. "Inflation is drifting further from target, private sector economic growth has slowed materially, and the labor market has just sounded a warning bell."
Rachel West and Laura Valle Gutierrez of The Century Foundation wrote earlier this week that "Trump's economy of uncertainty is leading to widespread anxiety, with more than 3 in 4 Americans saying they are concerned about a possible recession."
"And Trump's budget law, which slashes healthcare and food assistance for everyday Americans to pay for more than $4 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, compounds Americans' uncertainty and fear about what the future brings," they added.
Most Popular
We cover the issues the corporate media never will.
Please support our journalism.