Democracy Wire

Americans understand why the First Amendment contains both our free speech and a free press as fundamental to our democracy. We must have information we can rely on to make informed decisions and cast informed ballots to determine the future for our family and community.

Jon Sinton is a media entrepreneur working in radio, television, and online industries. He serves on the advisory board for Common Cause Georgia. Photo Credit: Lorraine Mirabella/The Baltimore Sun

The proposed merger should be "dead on arrival" at the FCC, says former Commissioner Michael Copps.

Ever notice that when you go shopping online, ads for whatever you were shopping for show up in your Facebook and Twitter feeds and on other web pages you visit? Action in Congress on Tuesday dramatically increased the likelihood that you’ll soon be seeing even more such ads.

The President's stated goal of a 75 percent cut in federal regulations in unattainable, and a bad idea to boot.

Our media are letting us down. From their mostly vapid coverage of the 2016 Presidential campaign on television to the paucity of new information on the Internet’s major “news” sites, the communications ecosystem is failing our democracy. It’s a failure that has already cost us dearly and a breakdown that will only get worse until we recognize and confront the damage that has been done. Sadly, amid the incessant hurling of personal broadsides and character assassination from many of the candidates, and the ubiquitous replay of sordid electioneering masquerading as “breaking news” on just about every channel, real coverage of issues gets the hindmost.