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College and Research Libraries
May 2005, Vol. 66, No. 3

Book Review

McChesney, Robert W. The Problem of the Media: U. S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century. New York: Monthly Review Pr., 2004. 367p. paper $16.95 (ISBN 1583671056); cloth $39 (ISBN 1583671064). LC 2003-26386.

Many Americans are dissatisfied with poor-quality media content today, from hypercommercialism to journalism that depoliticizes our society with biased, inaccurate, or trivial reporting. Only in the past few years have some come to understand that this poor quality is due, in part, to the concentration of the media among five worldwide conglomerates and their influence on government media policies. Media reform and a truly democratic media system, essential for a strong democracy, are possible only with informed and widespread public debate. Although government representatives and media supercompanies have tried to hide their activities from the American public, recent grassroots efforts have mobilized citizens to demand that their representatives protect and increase media diversity.

Robert W. McChesney, considered by many to be America’s leading media historian, has written an impeccably researched, provocative, and entertaining book that expands on his Rich Media, Poor Democracy (1999). A research professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the graduate school of library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, McChesney renders a compelling history of the federal government’s subsidy of the media, including the passage of favorable or sympathetic legislation, from the early years of our Republic to the current popular uprising against the hegemony of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). It is the latter story (covered in the final chapter) that dramatically builds from the corrupt Telecommunications Act of 1996 to the unwritten conclusion that is our future.

To encourage critical thinking and initiate discourse and action, McChesney demolishes eight widely accepted myths about the media and the policies that feed then. Through several chapters, he frees us from the misconception around which several of the myths revolve: that media are "naturally commercial and that government has been and is an innocent bystander (or non-productive intruder) in the process of creating media systems."

Perhaps the most commonly accepted myth, the one that has been promoted so vigorously by conservative talk radio hosts who are fed daily talking points by the Radio Services Department of the Republican National Committee and vastly outnumber a handful of milquetoast liberal counterparts, is that the news media in the United States today have a "left-wing bias." Among the numerous pieces of evidence he uses to refute this myth—evidence from government reports, trade publications, and scholarly articles—McChesney cites a 2000 Editor & Publisher survey that showed "newspaper publishers favored George W. Bush over Al Gore by a 3-to-1 margin, while newspaper editors and publishers together favored Bush by a 2-to-1 margin."

McChesney contends that the media are dominated by a small number of very large, vertically integrated corporations that control the content and the conduits to distribute it. Their owners are generous supporters of politicians through powerful lobbyists. Perhaps the most significant by-product of this corporate dominance is that most journalists are reluctant to aggressively investigate malfeasance by conservative politicians for fear of providing proof of the accusation of left-wing bias. Because the media almost exclusively report official spin, at which the right is supremely skilled, rather than engage in investigative journalism, the average consumer of news media believes a grotesque perversion of the truth.

The most damaging myth, though, is that "debates concerning media policy in the United States have accurately reflected the range of public opinion and public interests." McChesney devotes the final chapter to the "Uprising of 2003," during which a grassroots effort by concerned citizens from across the political spectrum insisted that the FCC not relax media ownership rules as it was attempting to do without public debate. Throughout, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, refused to hold adequate hearings, yet continued to argue (through the media) that the FCC had given the people ample time to respond and that they simply weren’t interested. In fact, his actions were so underhanded that McChesney labels him the most dishonorable politician in America today.

Two events inspired people to action: the United States invasion and occupation of (and the media’s unbalanced and sensationalistic coverage of) Iraq and the unlikely "emergence of conservative opposition to the relaxation of media ownership rules." Disgusted with the media and informed of the FCC’s duplicitous activities by the two Democratic Commission chairmen, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, nearly three million Americans from both the right and left officially registered their displeasure with the FCC and demanded that their elected representatives put a halt to its plans to further relax media consolidation laws. With the exception of the Iraq War, Congress noted that the FCC’s deceitful activity was the most important issue to their constituencies in 2003. In June of this year, "both Congress and the courts repudiated the FCC’s reckless decision on media ownership."

McChesney’s arguments are logical and his evidence abundant, making his conclusions convincing. He posits that the media are an antidemocratic force in America today because they promote hypercommercialism and depoliticize society. Yet his book is not simply an indictment of manipulative right-wing politicians and greedy owners of media supercompanies. He reminds us that "media reform and campaigns for social justice are inexorably linked," and suggests that the small victories of the recent past can sustain hope of future victory for those who believe a strong democracy provides high-quality media representing a variety of viewpoints. He reminds us that we have the power to ensure our Republic remains "for the people."—Kurt H. Cumiskey, North Carolina State University.