Friend,

After six months of research, writing and … um … rewriting, Free Press has released our inaugural Media Capitulation Index. This sweeping investigation examines how America’s 35 largest media companies have caved to pressure from the authoritarian and corrupt Trump administration.

After digging into the many failures of America’s hyper-commercialized media system, I’ve authored a report with a series of recommendations to help dig us out of our current mess and build toward a more independent, democratic, diverse and free press: A More Perfect Media: Saving America’s Fourth Estate from Billionaires, Broligarchy and Trump.

Please check out the Index and join Free Press as we continue the fight to make a better, more just and democratic media a reality.

This work is crucial at a time when some of the most dominant news media conglomerates including Disney (which owns ABC), Paramount (CBS), and Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN) are capitulating in the face of this administration’s political extortion and thuggery. In addition, The New York Times is becoming increasingly “vulnerable” to pressure from the White House.

We also investigate the questionable and often lucrative government entanglements of billionaire media owners like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

Through a history of mergers and acquisitions, billionaire- and equity-fund-controlled companies have consolidated their control over the Fourth Estate, determining much of what Americans read, see and hear. Our founders envisioned a press free from government meddling and able to act as a reliable check against tyranny and corruption.

Former New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan interviewed me and called Free Press' investigation a “thorough new examination of how well — or poorly— the American press is doing that core mission. And why it’s mostly failing.”

Each conglomerate in the Media Capitulation Index is ranked on a scale from “independent” to “propaganda.” The report analyzes the root causes driving commercial media’s inability to defend democracy at a time of spreading domestic and international authoritarianism.

Please take a moment or two to visit the Media Capitulation Index and read A More Perfect Media.

As I was writing, researching and creating these materials, many people asked me: "Who owns the media?" The Media Capitulation Index helps answer that question, but it also raises an even more essential (and disturbing) one: "Who owns the media owners?"

Learn more about the Index here, and read my analysis of the systemic problems behind the media’s failure to meet this moment. Share the index with your friends, family and colleagues — and then let’s continue our work together to make “a more perfect media” for everyone.

Thank you,

Timothy Karr
Senior Director of Strategy and Communications
Free Press