Critical scholar, author, educator, media activist

Submitted by Craig Schroeder, Columbus OH: Bill Moyers described Bob McChesney as today's Paul Revere. More than anyone, it seems to me, McChesney has boiled his huge, scholarly understanding of the media we have today, and how it affects us, and how we got here, into certain key messages. Those key messages -- such as the idea that our media is a system created by policymakers and rich media owners, and it can be changed through democratic pressure -- are crucial to understanding power, media and democracy.

Founder of Women's Institute for Freedom the Press

Submitted by Martha Allen, Washington, DC: Donna Allen was an activist (economist advocating disarmament, anti-war leader, civil rights activist) who turned her attention to media issues speaking and writing about media consolidation and control in the late sixties. She founded the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) in 1972, and founded and edited Media Report to Women, covering media democracy and what women were doing to change the communications media. WIFP still publishes the Directory of Women's Media and works for media democracy & justice.

Feminist; anti-racist organizer; attorney; media activist

With righteous anger matched by a sharp and often foul-mouthed wit, Flo Kennedy modeled creative, radical resistance for generations of feminists. As a young attorney, Kennedy handled the estates of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, exposing record companies’ racist exploitation of successful black artists. In 1966, while most progressive activists were focused on the Vietnam War, Kennedy set up The Media Workshop to expose and fight racism and oppression in the American media.

Journalist; labor organizer; founder of the Newspaper Guild

From 1912 until his death in 1939, Heywood Broun was an immensely popular newspaper columnist, writing news, commentary, sports and literary criticism for a number of New York newspapers and wire services. Married to feminist writer Ruth Hale, Broun believed that journalists had both the power and the responsibility to combat social injustices. His crusading articles often championed the causes of working people, and railed against bigotry and racial prejudice. Hoping to improve journalists’ working conditions, pay and sense of professional dignity, Broun founded the first union for journalists in 1933.

Educational TV pioneers

In the late 1960s, Joan Ganz Cooney and a few likeminded collaborators sought a new, creative way to connect with children using television. The Children’s Television Workshop wanted to avoid the segregation of education from entertainment, and to create a programming environment in which young viewers would be safe from commercial manipulation by advertisers. Finally, they wanted to prioritize serving audiences of nonwhite and lower-income children. Grittily urban, multicultural and kid-safe, Sesame Street was CTW’s first and most celebrated result.

National daily independent news program

Hosted by award-winning investigative journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now! has become an indispensable part of the American media landscape. The Pacifica Network’s hour-long daily news program prides itself on being the fruit of a broad, ongoing collaboration, drawing upon the work of a large number of independent journalists and community media outlets. Founded in 1996 as an election-year project at WBAI, the program quickly became Pacifica’s most essential investigative news program.

Abolitionist; journalist; orator; statesman

Escaping from slavery at the age of 20, Frederick Douglass rose to become one of the most effective and righteous moral voices of all time. He was inspired by abolitionist activist and journalist William Lloyd Garrison to begin speaking out against slavery, and began writing for Garrison’s newspaper The Liberator. Douglass was a natural communicator, and a powerful public speaker; his autobiography became an international bestseller in 1845.

Media watch nonprofit organization

Founded by former journalist and civil rights lawyer Jeff Cohen, media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has set the standard for media criticism based on democratic values rather than on partisan positions. Tracking media practices that marginalize women, people of color, and voices of dissent, FAIR critiques media bias, inaccuracies, and omissions—and mobilizes a community of activists to hold media outlets accountable.

Media activist; filmmaker; educator; organizer

In four decades as a filmmaker, teacher, and international communications rights activist, DeeDee Halleck has helped place new technologies—from home video and cable television to Internet journalism and digital satellite broadcasting—in the hands of social movements and regular folks. Along the way, she has inspired generations of grassroots media activists, and helped found a string of creative grassroots media initiatives.

Pacifist; community radio pioneer; founder of Pacifica Radio

During World War II, pacifist Lew Hill hatched a radical idea with a number of fellow conscientious objectors. Frustrated by the marginalization of critical voices in broadcast media, they resolved to launch their own radio station—a station which could increase peace and justice by creating opportunities for thoughtful public discussion of diverse ideas. After the war, Hill and his friends formed the Pacifica Foundation, and in 1949 launched KPFA as the country's first listener-supported radio station.