Leaked: The Internet must go!

Hey! Are you on the internet right now? Of course you are! Then you should definitely check out this amazing video about what the internet companies are planning. This move could hurt both consumers and content creators--but of course would be a huge windfall for internet providers.

How weathly are Americans?

The disparity in wealth between the richest one percent of Americans and the bottom 80 percent has grown exponentially over the last thirty years — but the video, posted by user politizane and relying on data from a popular Mother Jones post, focuses on the difference between the ideal disparity that Americans would like to see and the reality.

Tax the Rich

So long! It's been fun.

Dear listeners,

In July 2011 I started a new job teaching Italian at Kansas State University. In some ways this was a return to my roots, as I taught English as a Foreign Language for 17 years in Italy. Now I am teaching English speakers Italian. I've come full circle.

This coming full circle also means the end of an attempt on my part to start a new career in my 50s. Sadly, as much as I tried to bring community radio to Manhattan, I was not successful. So I have decided to dedicate my energy and time to my first love, being an educator.

The archive of my shows will remain active - there's a lot of great content in the shows. So I hope you continue to listen and enjoy them.

Once again thank you for your support and encouragement over the five years the show was on the air. I know many feel that my program needs to be on the air and I agree with you that a diversity of voices is sorely lacking in the local media. But alas, it is not I who will bring that diversity. It will have to be someone else.

Christopher E. Renner

Media Reform Resources

Media Reform and Media Literacy Links


Progressive Media Sources

  • AlterNet is an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of dozens of other independent media sources. AlterNet's aim is to inspire citizen action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, and health care issues.
  • blogActive this DC-based gay blogger who works on “telling you the truth about hypocrisy in the government” by outing politicians who vote anti-gay, get money form the Radical Right but who go to gay bars, have same-sex partners and frequent gay tourist spots. A sometimes funny, often insightful and never dull blog to keep up with.
  • Common Dreams is a national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring progressive Americans together to promote progressive visions for America's future. Founded in 1997, we are committed to being on the cutting-edge of using the internet as a political organizing tool - and creating new models for internet activism.
  • CounterSpin provides a critical examination of the major stories every week, and exposes what the mainstream media might have missed in their own coverage. Combining lively discussion and a thoughtful media critique, CounterSpin is unlike any other show on the dial.
  • Daily Voice is Black America's Daily Newspaper.
  • Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 450 stations in North America. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, satellite television (DISH network: Free Speech TV ch. 9415 and Link TV ch. 9410; DIRECTV: Link TV ch. 375); as a "podcast," and on the internet.
  • Dissident Voice is an internet newsletter dedicated to challenging the distortions and lies of the corporate press and the privileged classes it serves.
  • Everyday Citizen is a magazine without paper, a think-and-do tank without walls, a collection of original journalism, analysis and opinion - and, it's also a very diverse and interesting online community that continues to grow. Members of our group also post link-intensive musings, ramblings and other assorted writings.
  • Evolving in Kansas is a Kansas written blog that explores science, evolution, education, religion, politics and more.
  • Free Speech TV broadcasts independently-produced documentaries dealing with social, political, cultural, and environmental issues; commissions and produces original programming; develops programming partnerships and collaborations with social justice organizations; provides special live broadcasts from remote locations; and maintains an adjunct Web site that hosts one of the Internet’s largest collection of progressive audio and video content.
  • Future Majority is a blog dedicated to covering the involvement of young voters in progressive politics.
  • Global Voices Online At a time when the international English-language media ignores many things that are important to large numbers of the world’s citizens, Global Voices aims to redress some of the inequities in media attention by leveraging the power of citizens’ media.
  • Huffington Post - Top News and Opinion
  • In These Times - is dedicated to informing and analyzing popular movements for social, environmental and economic justice; to providing a forum for discussing the politics that shape our lives; and to producing a magazine that is read by the broadest and most diverse audience possible.
  • In This Moment is a Lawrence-based blog written by three women that provides news and commentary on civil liberties, lesbian and gay issues, Fred Phelps, religion, politics and war.
  • Kansas Free Press strives to be your trusted state-wide online newspaper, featuring both opinion and news, written by citizen journalists about people, places, politics and policies that effect Kansans.
  • Listen Up! is a youth media network that connects young video producers and their allies to resources, support, and projects in order to develop the field and achieve an authentic youth voice in the mass media.
  • Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice works to educate and organize for peace and social justice in Manhattan. They believe this requires more equal access to wealth and well-being for all members of the community and nation; a world community based on peaceful conflict resolution; freedom from economic exploitation; universal human rights; and, cooperation among nations for the preservation of our planet's environment. Their webpage provides news and information about the local progressive community in Manhattan.
  • MediaChannel.org is concerned with the political, cultural and social impacts of the media, large and small. MediaChannel exists to provide information and diverse perspectives and inspire debate, collaboration, action and citizen engagement.
  • New Humanist is the London based magazine of the Rationalist Association, promoting reason, debate and free thought since 1885. During that time New Humanist has distinguished itself as a world leader in supporting and promoting humanism and rational inquiry and opposing religious dogma, irrationalism and bunkum wherever it is found.
  • The New Internationalist is a communications co-operative renowned for its radical, campaigning stance on a range of world issues, from the cynical marketing of babymilk in the Majority World to human rights in Burma. Publications from the New Internationalist are produced by an independent trust working as a not-for-profit cooperative. Originally the group was sponsored by Oxfam, Christian Aid and the Cadbury and Rowntree Trusts, but since the early 1980s sponsorship has no longer been needed.
  • OpenLeft is a news, analysis and action website dedicated toward building a progressive governing majority in America.
  • Project Censored - the stories mass media ignores.
  • Tom Paine is an online public affairs journal of progressive analysis and commentary. Every weekday, we go beyond the news to deliver well-informed, provocative and credible progressive perspectives on the pressing issues affecting the nation and the world.
  • Talking Points Memo provides commentary on political events from a politically left perspective by Joshua Micah Marshall.
  • Thoughts from Kansas is written by Joshua Rosenau, who spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
  • TruthDig is a Web magazine that provides expert in-depth coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major "digs," led by authorities in their fields, who will drill down into contemporary topics and assemble packages of content -- text, links, audio, video -- that will grow richer with time and user participation.
  • Truthout is dedicated to establishing a powerful, stable voice for independent journalism. The core of our mission is educational, as we believe that the biggest impediment to informed decision-making is a lack of information. So we provide citizens with access to reader-supported news instead of advertiser-supported news.
  • The Women's Media Center is the first of its kind. It's mission is to assure that women and women’s experiences are reflected in the media just as women are present everywhere in the real world; that women are represented as local, national, and global sources for and subjects of the media; and that women media professionals have equal opportunities for employment and advancement.
  • WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.
  • Youth Radio's mission is to promote young people's intellectual, creative and professional growth through training and access to media and to produce the highest quality original media for local and national outlets.
  • Z Communications connects you to a group of online periodicals/audio visuals dedicated to resisting injustice, eliminating repression, and creating liberty.