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Robert Waterman McChesney Biography

Robert Waterman McChesney

Robert Waterman McChesney (born December 22, 1952) is an American professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign as the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication. He specializes in the history and political economy of communication, and the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He co-founded Free Press, a national media reform organization. From 2002–12, he hosted “Media Matters” weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILL-AM radio.

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Robert Waterman McChesney Quotes

But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.

Phones, Media, Goal, Capitalists, Phone

You will never ever, in any circumstance, win any struggle at any time. That being said, we have a long way to go. At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.

Struggle, Winning, Phones, Battle, Media, Rid

If you go to go to countries in Europe or Asia or even Canada, even with all the Internet and cable TV and satellite, public systems tend to be the most popular stations in the countries. In some countries like Norway and Germany, public stations are, if anything, more popular than ever as people see what Rupert Murdoch's got in store for them in the commercial stations.

Commercial, Country, Internet, People, Satellite, Stations

Now, the one thing that's clear is that we need nonprofit, noncommercial media - not just broadcasting - more than ever in the United States. We don't need a purely nonprofit, noncommercial system, but we need a significant nonprofit, noncommercial system. Advertising-run media, profit-driven media, simply is not acceptable as the entirety of our media system. There's no defense for it.

Significant, Thing, System, Broadcasting, Clear, Purely

So the competition isn't once you got the license, running the station; it's getting the license.

Competition, License, Running, Station

When the government allocates monopoly rights to frequency, and there are only a handful in each community, it's picking the winners in the competition.

Community, Government, Monopoly, Picking, Rights, Winners

The cost of congressional and presidential campaigns has been leaping every two or four years. I think this year it will be 60 percent more than 1996; well over twice as much as in 1992 in the presidential and congressional races.

Thinking, Race, Years, Twice, Leaping, Year

One survey that I saw that was published I think in Variety or Electronic Media within the last three weeks says that now the average hour of radio in the United States has 18 minutes of commercials.

Average, Media, Published, Radio, Survey, Thinking

Local television news, on both radio and television, is so appalling. Makes print journalism look like the greatest stuff ever written.

Appalling, Look, Looks, News, Radio, Television

Even if someone wanted a purely free-market, competitive media system, it would require extensive government regulation to set up those markets. All our largest media companies are based on the grant of explicit government monopoly privileges and licenses, or franchises, or subsidies. The government didn't come in after the system was in place, it built the system in the first place.

Based, Companies, Explicit, Government, Largest, Require

But having said that, there's also a sea change in attitude towards media.

Attitude, Media, Said, Sea

Maybe if you and ten of your friends could pool your savings and borrow some money and actually buy some obscure station in Sonoma, and then take some chances and have some fun.

Chance, Fun, Maybe, Saving, Savings, Station

The range of debate between the dominant U. S. [political] parties tends to closely resemble the range of debate within the business class.

Party, Class, Political, Closely, Business, Range

Our existing media system today is the direct result of government laws and subsidies that created it.

Existing, Government, Law, Media, Subsidies

The relationship between the media owner, their relationship isn't strictly with people and audiences. It's also with advertisers, and that's the most relationship in radio; in fact it pays the bills.

Advertisers, Audiences, Media, Pays, People, Radio

What I've found is that there is a tremendous interest in these issues, across the political spectrum, sort of left-right terms we used to describe people don't really hold here exactly.

Issues, People, Political, Tremendous, Describe, Across

If you're running for reelection in the House of Representatives race, you know, it's very important to you that you be on fairly good terms with the local affiliates in the largest market in your area. I mean you don't want to antagonize them.

Antagonize, Mean, Race, Reelection, Representatives, Running

As the mainstream media has become increasingly dependent on advertising revenues for support, it has become an anti-democratic force in society.

Advertising, Increasingly, Mainstream Society, Media, Society, Support

If the Internet is worth its salt, it has to help arrest the forces that promote inequality, monopoly, hypercommercialism, corruption, depoliticization and stagnation.

Depoliticization, Helping, Inequality, Internet, Salt, Stagnation

A big part of my book deals with the caliber of journalism. Our journalism in general is deplorable, and on elections in particular it's very ineffectual. There are a lot of problems, a lot of them having to do with to problems within the professional code of journalism, which defines its role as the regurgitation of what people in power say. Another big problem is that we allow people with money to basically buy what's talked about in campaigns through running TV ads.

Book, Campaigns, Code, People, Running, Talked

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