Media

image couresy of the Oregon Historical Society

Last year, as part of a 6-part primer on changing Oregon politics, the Bend Bulletin's most excellent correspondant to the Oregon State legislature, James Sinks, wrote a piece about the decline in media coverage at the capitol.

The piece takes an even-handed view of the traditional role of the 4th estate, how the void is getting filled by special interests -- talk radio, the blogs, etc., and how this lack of coverage coupled with the partisan nature of the interests filling the void is contributing to a coarsening of our political climate.

by Megan Tady

Most progressives already know that the nation’s media is in the hands of the few, the rich, the white, and the male. We know that local control of the airwaves and newspapers is as rare as a “fair and balanced” Fox news report, and as tenuous as Cheney’s stuttering heart. We know that to create any lasting and systemic social change – out with the old, in with the bold – we must take back the media that we’ve lost.