This work shows in detail the emergence and consolidation of U.S. commercial broadcasting economically, politically, and ideologically. This process was met by organized opposition and a general level of public antipathy that has been almost entirely overlooked by previous scholarship. McChesney highlights the activities and arguments of this early broadcast reform movement of the 1930s. The reformers argued that commercial broadcasting was inimical to the communication requirements of a democratic society and that the only solution was to have a dominant role for nonprofit and noncommercial...

Addresses the corporate media explosion and the corresponding implosion of public life that characterizes our times.

States that American journalism is a class institution serving the rich and spurning the poor. This title likens journalists to prostitutes and the title of the book refers to a chit that was issued to patrons of urban brothels of the era. It presents a critique of the structural basis of US media.