News Media Alliance
Not Enemy of the People, Just Doing Our Jobs
[Commentary] We are in uncharted times. Republicans and Democrats alike are adding their voices in protest to recent attacks by President Trump and others on the media. “I’ve had some rather contentious times with the press,” Secretary of Defense General Mattis said in response to a question about whether he saw the media as an enemy. “But no, the press is a constituency — as far as I’m concerned — that we deal with and I don’t have any issues with the press, myself.” “The backbone of democracy is a free press and an independent judiciary,” Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said. “And they are worth fighting and dying for.” “Look, we’re big boys. We criticize presidents. They want to criticize us back, that’s fine,” Chris Wallace said. “But when he said that the fake news media is not my enemy, it’s the enemy of the American people, I believe that crosses an important line.”
Add your voice. The media is not the enemy and we are just doing our jobs.
News Media Alliance Appeals FCC Media Ownership Rules
The News Media Alliance (formerly the Newspaper Association of America) filed an appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s inexplicable decision to keep in place media ownership rules that prevent a television or radio station from being co-owned with a newspaper in the same market.
“After 41 years of abiding by a rule that has long outlived its purpose, we have been forced to fight the FCC’s decision in court,” said David Chavern, President and CEO of the News Media Alliance. “Our industry provides long-term investigative journalism and local news and public affairs coverage that is intensely important to local communities. It makes no sense at all to prevent newspapers from helping to fund this essential activity by receiving capital and collaboration by an aligned industry such as broadcasting...This rule prevents our industry from achieving the necessary scale to compete in media marketplace, while investment will continue to flow to Internet distribution platforms that compete with news publishers for advertising revenue. The result will be fewer resources for local news and investigative reporting, the foundation of an open democracy. We are deeply disappointed and we will fight to overturn these rules once and for all,” stated Chavern.