A biography for Robert McChesneyhasn’t been written yet.
“Local television news, on both radio and television, is so appalling. Makes print journalism look like the greatest stuff ever written.”
“Also, the commercial media in a superior position, really, to any other corporate lobby, because where would people hear about commercial media or corporate media criticism, where would they hear criticism of them other than in the commercial media?”
“So that what you tend to see is someone like a Rush Limbaugh, he's the classic case because he's the most successful, he didn't sort of like come out of his mother's womb with the highest ratings in the country.”
“So the competition isn't once you got the license, running the station; it's getting the license.”
“As the mainstream media has become increasingly dependent on advertising revenues for support, it has become an anti-democratic force in society.”
“Because what's going on now, and this applies mostly to television stations in the largest markets too, but TV stations basically are now the primary receivers of campaign spending.”
“The public gets not one penny from them in return for those airwaves.”
“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.”
“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.”
“And they've got to be held accountable; our broadcasting system has to be made accountable; and unless it is, it's going to be very hard to change anything else for the better in this country.”