Our new edition with @prospect.org dropped just in time for the Winter Olympics & the Big Game. We break down how the same forces driving inequality in the economy are corrupting our national pastimes—with the wealthy prospering while fans & even players beg for the bare minimum.

A remarkable and chilling insight from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

every epstein file drop underscores how elite power operates through shared socio-economic networks, regardless of people's ideological differences, populist posturing, or public feuds

Laying off dozens of journalists to make to make a newspaper "self-sustaining." Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/b...

One of the first moves of the new U.S.-based TikTok, owned by Trump allies, is to permanently ban an Emmy-winning Palestinian influencer with 1.4 million followers. This is brazen censorship that should get as much attention and condemnation as Jimmy Kimmel being temporarily taken off air.

NEW📰: Concentrated wealth and power threaten free speech at public and private colleges alike. @lookheron.bsky.social argues the real issue isn’t public funding, but governance, power, and who is willing to defend academic freedom when it’s under pressure. https://bit.ly/4aeVtnD

Friedman got in a cab again.

😂

We really can move away from the “appears to contradict” wording.

starts with figuring out short-form video strategy in a hostile algo-driven info environment

CAP is hiring a chief economist! Please come be my colleague and get unhealthy amounts of bubble tea with me!

you'd think a journalist could point out the very obvious fact that Brendan Carr has a TERRIBLE track record of allowing anti-competitive consolidation in telecom and that this is entirely a performance for the benefit of Larry Ellison

I spent the most formative years of my political life reading headlines like this seemingly every week.

Last week marked 16 years since the Citizens United decision. The consequences for our politics have been disastrous. Billionaire spending has skyrocketed—and it’s no coincidence that economic policies ever since have overwhelmingly favored entrenched wealth over the working class.

I wish the discourse would have grappled with @chrislhayes.bsky.social's book even more. Policy people love to debate policy. But attention capitalism has basically upended policy's capacity to mean anything to the public on its own. We in the policy sphere really need to catch up with reality.

People got so uncomfortable about that Ta-Nehisi Coates quote about how if you didn't draw the line at Gaza, you can't draw the line at democracy

Excited to see @patblanchfield.bsky.social's brilliant interdisciplinary analysis applied to corruption and other issues. That he's an amazing writer to boot is a welcome bonus!

The grimness of US history should encourage us. Yes, people used to send lynching postcards. And other people saw that, worked towards building a more just society anyway, and succeeded beyond anyone's wildest imagination. There's more work to be done. What's our excuse for choosing despair instead?

So grateful for the opportunity to welcome and work with @victorpickard.bsky.social, one of the foremost scholars and advocates for media democracy in the US. Victor's work on public media is especially urgent as oligarchs and media conglomerates amass ever more communication power at our expense.

Happy 25th anniversary to @wikipedia.org, which we need to protect at all costs. Authoritarians and oligarchs hate Wikipedia because they can't control it, and because a democratic public with access to facts might hold them accountable.

Bitcoin was invented 16 years ago. If crypto provided any utility beyond buying drugs online, creating a new form of gambling or indulging Libertarian anti-state fantasies, it would have broken into the mainstream by now.

The feds raided a Washpost reporter’s home today, seizing her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch. The reporter isn’t the focus of the investigation, apparently. And yes, this is highly unusual. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

NOW: Congress is holding an oversight hearing of the FCC. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has weaponized his authority against comedians, tv networks, and the First Amendment. The FCC should be defending the Constitution - not Donald Trump’s fragile ego. tiny.cc/FCC-Oversigh...

Remarkable to watch Brendan Carr use localism to justify mass consolidation and the elimination of some of the last remaining ownership regulations.

We can’t fix our democracy without fixing our media crisis. Deregulation, disinvestment, and disregard for press freedom are all policy choices—@bilalb.bsky.social, @shahrzadshams.bsky.social, & @victorpickard.bsky.social explain the need to reverse course on all three fronts. https://bit.ly/4rUvr01

“Decades of market-first policymaking has systematically eroded the media’s democratic function, leaving the press structurally vulnerable at precisely the moment independent journalism matters most.” @bilalb.bsky.social @shahrzadshams.bsky.social of @rooseveltinstitute.org discuss a new report:

Read the full report from @victorpickard.bsky.social, @bilalb.bsky.social and @shahrzadshams.bsky.social of @rooseveltinstitute.org called "The Political Economy of the US Media System: Excavating the Roots of the Present Crisis." HERE: rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Thanks to the @freepress.bsky.social for having @bilalb.bsky.social & me for this Q&A discussion about our new @rooseveltinstitute.org report, where we explore the roots of the crises facing our media system & argue that we need to rethink our policy approach to this vital democratic infrastructure

The richest 0.001% now have three times as much wealth as the poorer half of humanity combined. www.commondreams.org/news/world-i...

Useful thread!

"today’s media crisis wasn’t inevitable but the consequence of policymakers’ embracing a corporate libertarian approach to media policy." 🔥

When journalism is trapped inside a commercial straitjacket, it can’t fight back. Our new piece on how hyper commercialism, oligarchy, and state coercion have converged to threaten the press — based on our recent @rooseveltinstitute.org report. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

New @thenation.com piece by @bilalb.bsky.social, @shahrzadshams.bsky.social and myself that draws from our recent @rooseveltinstitute.org report to argue for structural media reform: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Over at the @rooseveltinstitute.org, a new report by @bilalb.bsky.social, @shahrzadshams.bsky.social, and @victorpickard.bsky.social examines the political economy of the US media system.

"[D]ecades of market-first policymaking has systematically eroded the media’s democratic function... consolidation that concentrated power in fewer hands, the abandonment of meaningful public-interest standards, and the rise of platform monopolies with virtually no accountability."

Really excited to share this new report I wrote with my brilliant colleagues, @bilalb.bsky.social & @victorpickard.bsky.social! We explore the roots of the crises facing our media system & argue that a truly democratic information ecosystem must be protected from both state *&* commercial coercion⤵️

New from @rooseveltinstitute.org @bilalb.bsky.social @victorpickard.bsky.social @shahrzadshams.bsky.social "The next chapter of democracy reform must treat our media system as a core infrastructure that makes democracy possible & thus demands protection from both state control & commercial capture."

The real con, says Director of Democratic Institutions @bilalb.bsky.social: A tax giveaway to billionaires while starving communities of healthcare, food assistance, and reliable public media sources. Here’s some intel on the impact on the media: rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

"When commercial imperatives override democratic needs, and when policymakers treat media as just another market rather than essential civic infrastructure, we create a media system susceptible to pressure from all directions."

A big part of the erosion of democracy is corporate capture of news media. This is a crucial report. Thanks @rooseveltinstitute.org

Any serious agenda for democratic renewal requires us to recognize that news should be treated as a public good, not a commodity. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

"Market supremacy has shrunk both our understanding of what a civic information economy ought to provide in a democracy, and our imagination about how to better guarantee the public access to reliable, diverse information." new from @rooseveltinstitute.org rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

spoiler: mass media consolidated in the hands of ad-based corporations owned by a handful of right wing billionaires is easily exploited by a wide variety of bad actors and fatal to democracy and informed consensus

"The crisis facing American journalism is the predictable outcome of decades of corporate libertarian media policy that prioritized commercial logics over democracy."

NEW📰: Democracy requires both an informed citizenry and a free press. But how do these ideals show up in public policy? Today, we have a paper out that looks at how media has become highly concentrated, commercialized, and drained of its public interest potential.

A new report from MIC Co-Director @victorpickard.bsky.social as well as @shahrzadshams.bsky.social and @bilalb.bsky.social maps the political economy behind today’s media crisis and asks the urgent question: What would a media system designed to strengthen democracy actually look like?

Thrilled for our new @rooseveltinstitute.org report to be out in the world! A few thoughts on why this matters today, and why media policy and structural media reform must be central to a broader pro-democracy movement: 🧵🧵🧵🧵

Thrilled to announce the publication of our @rooseveltinstitute.org report that uncovers the policy roots of the current crises facing our news, information & communication systems. We argue that media reform must become central to a US pro-democracy movement. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...