Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. Or, as the case may be and as morbid as it may be to say it, death is what happens when you are busy making other plans.

I was researching an essay for this newsletter about the media democracy movement, roughly spanning the decade from 2003 to 2013, of which Chicago Media Action was a part. But I found out this month that two champions of media and democracy had died. One, the longtime media activist and scholar Robert W. McChesney. Two, the longtime activist and member of Chicago Media Action, Scott Sanders.

This news has been tough to take (at a time when there's been a lot of news that's been tough to take), and the timing so close to the end of the month was such that I didn't have a chance to do any further work on the essay in time for today's deadline.

So, yet another change of plans: No newsletter this month, with the plan/hope to resume next month. I plan to write and complete the essay I was working on this month for next month, to be followed by in-memoriam essays remembering and honoring Bob and Scott, and then a final scheduled essay about Chicago Media Action.

Thank you.

I now present the second part of the long-ass essay on the history of American media activism. Please enjoy Corporate Media Control and Media Reform Struggles (Updated) - Part 2 of 2.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

In anticipation of providing context of media activism writ large across American history, I updated a talk that I gave in 2011 -- a talk that is so long I divided it into two parts. Please enjoy Corporate Media Control and Media Reform Struggles (Updated) - Part 1 of 2

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

In this month's newsletter, we revisit an episode of media activism in which CMA had some remarkable successes. Please enjoy The Digital Television (DTV) Conversion Revisited.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

We continuing with our election-related discursion in this month's dispatch: Media and the Outcome of the 2024 U.S. Election.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

Happy Chicago-Media-Action-iversary! Today marks 22 years since the effective start of Chicago Media Action, and two years since the start of these newsletter dispatches.

The media have affected the 2024 U.S. election, and its various trajectories, in so many ways. I review some of those impacts in the November 2024 newsletter -- Media and the 2024 U.S. Election.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

Again with the busy summer. I didn't post an announcement about the delayed CMA newsletter of August 2024, themed to the DNC and Chicago media activism. Consider this a belated announcement.

But for the first time in three months, I have a newsletter written and sent out on time. Please enjoy A History of CMA-Related Radio Efforts.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

Three things:

1. I had a busier-than-expected end of June, so I missed sending out this month's dispatch on its regularly scheduled date of July 2nd. My apologies for that.

2. On the topic of last month's dispatch on media and the model of a participatory economy, there is now a companion essay written for folks more familiar with the model. Do check it out.

3. On the cusp of the 20th anniversary of the release Chicago Media Action's landmark study of WTTW's show "Chicago Tonight", we devote this month's dispatch to reviewing media analysis of local American "public" broadcasting, in 2004 and in 2024 -- "Analyzing local public broadcasting, then and now".

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

And now for something somewhat different from previous CMA essays: I tie in, or try to tie in, my current work on economics with the work on media to offer a proposal for how media might work in a (hopefully better) economy. This month, I give you Media and the model of a participatory economy.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

Net neutrality is back after an absence of more than seven years. The issue was one of ongoing struggle, in which (I like to think) CMA played a key supporting role. That's the focus of this month's dispatch: CMA's History with Net Neutrality

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

The spotlight cast by the Chicago Media Action newsletter now turns its attention to a longtime foe, one which has broken up into a pale shadow of its former self. This month, we discuss Tribune!

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

As noted previously, we lost the founder of Chicago Media Action -- Chris Geovanis. Chicago Media Action would never have formed, nor would it have worked as hard as it did for as long as it did and as successfully as it did, had it not been for Chris.

We remember Chris' courageous action in a very lengthy essay (actually, what was once a draft of a book chapter): Chris Geovanis and "A New Group".

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

I'm sending this message outside of the normal schedule for Chicago Media Action newsletters to share some important but sad news.

Christine Geovanis -- a longtime Chicago activist whose protest and arrest in 2002 resulted in the creation of what became Chicago Media Action -- passed away this week, on Monday, February 12, 2024.

If you're in the Chicago area, Chris' visitation is scheduled for Sunday, February 18, 2024, at the Kuratko-Nosek Funeral Home in Des Plaines, Illinois. Her funeral service is scheduled for Monday, February 19, at 11AM local time, also at Kuratko-Nosek Funeral Home. More information is here.

I'll have more to say about Chris and her legacy in the days and months to come.

Thank you.

Christine Geovanis, presenté!

In this month's post, we revisit the story of the Ministerial Alliance Against the Digital Divide, a group of black Chicago ministers devoted to equity in telecommunications access, and their apparent conversion (pun intended) from grassroots activist group to corporate-backed front-group to apparently nothing at all.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

This website has had some unkind, but thoroughly justified, things to say about the National Association of Broadcasters in the past. We continue that tradition, complete with a oh-how-the-mighty-have-fallen update, in this month's dispatch, NAB - The National Association of Beggars?.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

On the heels of last month's commentary about CAN TV, I attended the CAN TV 40th annversary gala, which I report on in this month's newsletter: A Report from the CAN TV 40th Anniversary Gala.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of CAN TV, the fleet of Chicago's public access cable television channels. CMA has supported CAN TV, and CAN TV has supported CMA. I discuss the network and experiences over the years, among other topics, in CAN TV: Past, present, future?

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

A previous Chicago Media Action newsletter essay led to another essay published as an op-ed, and then commentary came and then I wrote an essay as a response to some of that commentary. I relate the whole story in this month's feature essay, "Is a broadcast license revocation a form of censorship?".

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

In addition to this month's Chicago Media Action newsletter, I have two announcements of note:

1. On the heels of last month's post about broadcast license challenges, we now have a dispatch published on the website of Project Censored on the same topic. Check it out.
   
   
2. The U.S. government's Federal Trade Commission is taking public comment on future policies regarding corporate antitrust. This can matter because the Biden administration has appointed FTC commissioners who have a history and interest in cracking down on corporate mergers. I already posted a comment, and I also shared a Chicago Media Action research project from 2010 to the docket. You can also see related commentary on my personal website for more inspiration, along with this excellent commentary by anti-monopoly activist Matt Stoller.
   
   We have a rare opportunity to shape policy on corporate mergers, antitrust, and big business -- whether or not they're media related. And this is definitely media-related: Many big media mergers require FTC approval, in addition to FCC approval. You have until September 18, 2023, to respond. Go to this page on the regulations.gov website, click the blue "Comment" button on the upper-left of the page, and add in your comments on corporate mergers, antitrust, and big business.

Thank you. Now, on with our feature essay, The First Domino, about an inspiring victory that took place twenty years ago this weekend.

I had been meaning for a long time to revisit the topic of broadcast license challenges, and a new challenge which just dropped made for an excellent opportunity to delve into the topic. You can read more in Reflections on broadcast license challenges, past and present.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

Bobby Rush -- Black Panther Party co-founder, Chicago alderman, and decades-long Congressional representative -- stepped down this year after a long career in politics. Chicago Media Action had a number of interactions with Bobby Rush and his staff, some good, some less so. You can read more in this month's post, Reflections on Bobby Rush.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

Twenty years ago to the day of this post, the Federal Communications Commission voted to squelch its remaining media ownership rules, marking a sea change in media, the FCC, and the public. I talk about it in It's been 20 years since the FCC's horrid media ownership rule rewrite.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

We recently saw the end of an unsuccessful effort to put the longtime media and policy activist Gigi Sohn on the Federal Communications Commission. I talk about her, the campaign to squelch her nomination, and some possible next steps in Viva Gigi Sohn!

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

Two very impactful events on my life happened twenty years ago on this date -- one family-connected, one media-policy connected. I talk about them both in April 2, 2003: My Uncle and the Midwest Forum on Media Ownership.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

My friend and fellow media activist Jen Angel died last month. I recount the tragedy of her passing, and a subsequent tragedy of the corporate media coverage of her passing, in an article here.

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.

We're in the month of quadrennial Chicago municipal elections (my ballot came in the mail today). Read more about Thoughts on media, democracy, and the 2023 Chicago municipal elections

If you wish to join the CMA mailing list, please email cma@chicagomediaaction.org. Thank you.