From the Desk of Michael Copps: Real Disclosure for Real Democracy

[Commentary] America, we have a problem: billions of anonymous dollars pouring into a tsunami of negative TV advertising aimed at distorting political campaigns and manipulating election outcomes. Our civic dialogue -- the prerequisite of successful self-government -- is being short-circuited by deep-pocketed individuals, corporations and other groups operating on the smug premise that elections should be bought by the power of money rather than fought by the power of ideas. With visions of sugarplum profits dancing in their heads, big media companies are snapping up more and more stations around the country. That’s bad news for smaller, independent broadcast and cable companies and even worse news for localism, diversity and competition. Thirty years of rampant consolidation have decimated newsrooms, destroyed the muscle of investigative and accountability journalism, and stunted our civic dialogue. How much more damage has to be inflicted before we understand the necessity to say “No!” to more media consolidation and “Yes!” to some honest-to-God public interest oversight?