Dorothy J Burk

3/23/09
UMS 6184/6
Wilder/Gannaway
Abstract: Political Problem, Political Solution by Robert McChesney
The popular conception that free-market competition is the best framework for media in the United
States is challenged by McChesney, who argues that the solution which is best for capitalism might not be the
solution which is best for democracy. The first section of the article examines contemporary debates about
whether or not the media is in the purvey of the market. McChesney finds that both liberals and conservatives
believe that the media essentially occupies space in the market, and that the question that follows is whether
the market is actually the best way to organize the media. The history of deregulation in media is traced, with
an emphasis on how deregulation most benefitted the private interests of media players, not the citizenry.
In the second and third sections, McChesney introduces a historical perspective on the media, flowing
back to the early Republic and subsidies for newspapers and the post office. The history of copyright as an
incentive for cultural producers is also discussed; the way in which copyright, subsidies, and the First
Amendment effected and were affected by "newspaper politics" points towards the conclusion that media is not
best served under the free-market, but under political regulation.
McChesney moves to the history of radio enterprise in the fourth section as a means to understand the
key problem he recognizes, which is that the media has turned from serving the public interest first to serving
the public interest only after the corporate/private interest is served. He points to the FCC and to its function as
an essentially non-functioning regulatory agency which almost always answers to corporate interests.
The final section discusses Neoliberal theory. McChesney argues that Neoliberalism is at the heart of
the problem with media. In his conclusion he argues that rather than obscuring the policy-setting practices of
the FCC and other bodies so that the public feels they have free media, the media should report widely on
policy practices so that citizens can participate. The article builds to the crux that democratic citizens are those
citizens who are well-informed by largely unbiased interests, not those informed by corporate interests.

Article referenced

McChesney, R. (2009). Political Problem, Political Solutions. In B.E. Duffy and J. Turow (Eds.),
Key Readings in Media Today: Mass Communication in Contexts (pp. 60-89). New York: Routledge.