The Dissident Voice, an “internet newsletter dedicated to challenging the distortions and lies of the corporate press and the privileged classes it serves,” explores current challenges to free speech.

Says writer Mike Whitney:

The real objectives of the modern media are to depoliticize the American people and to cultivate the next generation of consumers. On both these counts the media has succeeded admirably.

The current strategy for undermining the First Amendment is a two-pronged attack:

1) The intentional exclusion of “unpopular” ideas from the media.

2) The reliance on an institutional system (right-wing radio) that can direct the elements of public rage at a particular person.

Unpopular ideas have virtually disappeared from the mainstream. When they do appear, as in the case of Bill Moyers investigative program NOW, there is such a furor, that all the forces of the political establishment are brought to bear to abolish the show. The case of NOW demonstrates the pathological fear that arch-conservatives have to ideas other than their own. Moyers alternate view turned out to be the catalyst for revamping the PBS leadership and replacing the top people with Bush loyalists. Ideas that conflict with the corporate-friendly vision of reality are now quickly scrubbed from the media and consigned to the dustbin.

At Dissident Voice.