Our Unfree Press: 100 Years of Radical Media Criticism

Robert McChesney is the greatest of our media historians.

The FCC’s recent controversial decision to roll back restrictions on media conglomeration produced an outpouring of protest and dissent; more than 700,000 Americans personally registered complaints along with organizations as diverse as NOW and the NRA.

In Our Unfree Press, Robert McChesney and Ben Scott demonstrate that, like the corporations themselves, criticism of media monopolies has a long tradition. Featuring the work of Upton Sinclair, C. Wright Mills, Walter Lippmann, Noam Chomsky, and many others, this provocative anthology charts such topics as the consolidation of ownership, the role of advertising, and the corruptions of profit. An extensive lead essay contextualizes pieces spanning the Progressive Era to the present day, making it abundantly clear that countering the media oligarchs requires more than token reforms. A must-read for anyone concerned by corporate consolidation of the media, Our Unfree Press reveals the necessity of a radical revision in our perception of the business of media.