Boston College Front Row

A student of the history and political economy of the media, Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and president of Free Press, a national media reform organization. He describes the decline of independent journalism in the United States, and suggests that more public resources be devoted to maintaining the free and unbiased news coverage that is essential to a democracy.