• Battling a Mean Receptionist and Ice Cream Madness to Inspect Political Files

    Libby Reinish
    September 21, 2012
    My Political Ad Sleuth road trip was often a solitary adventure. So when I arrived in Albuquerque, the last stop on my whirlwind four-city tour — which also included stops at TV stations in Denver, Detroit and Toledo — I was excited to see some familiar faces. With 20 station visits under my belt, I was feeling confident. What could go wrong?

  • On the Road in Toledo

    Libby Reinish
    August 20, 2012

    Toledo, Ohio was one of the “10 hottest campaign markets” when I visited last week, and it showed in the political files of the TV stations there. Weighing in at market number 75, Toledo is small enough that its TV stations are not required to put their political files online until 2014. But these stations are selling more ads than almost any other market in the country.

  • Chicago Tribune Writers Want Answers About Journatic

    Libby Reinish
    July 26, 2012

    How much has Tribune Co. invested in Journatic — the company that is replacing local journalists with outsourced news produced in the Philippines? What percentage of Journatic does it own? Who decided against immediately severing ties with Journatic when ethic code violations — including plagiarism — were uncovered? How can the Chicago Tribune maintain its credibility as a watchdog if its parent company doesn’t demand the same high standards from its business partners?

  • Hey, Tribune and Hearst: Local Means Local

    Libby Reinish
    July 17, 2012

    Moments ago, Free Press volunteers visited Tribune Tower in Chicago, delivering over 20,000 signatures with a simple message for Tribune and other media giants:

    Don’t sell out local journalism. Stop outsourcing local news and put out-of-work local journalists back on local beats.

    We want news produced by local journalists and coverage of the issues our community cares about. When you outsource local reporting to underpaid overseas workers, everyone in the community loses.

  • Local News Hits a New Low

    Libby Reinish
    July 2, 2012

    This American Life exposed a new low for local news in this week’s episode, “Switcheroo,” which revealed how U.S. media corporations have outsourced local news to the Philippines. The story focuses on a company called Journatic, which produces “local” news for dozens of newspapers around the United States. The problem is, they don’t use any local reporters to do it.

  • Raise Your Hand If You Want Representation

    Libby Reinish
    June 27, 2012

    Alright folks, let’s take a poll:

    Raise your hand if you think our current media system covers the issues you care about and gives you the information you need to better understand the world around you. If your hand is up, lucky you. If your hand is down, you’re not alone.

  • Bare Behinds Escape Fines

    Libby Reinish
    June 21, 2012

    The saga of the bare bottom has come to an end, at least for now.

  • Seattle: A Great Place to Listen to the Public

    Libby Reinish
    May 18, 2012

    Seattle’s a great place to visit.

    The Space Needle, Mount Rainier, good music, great coffee, the list goes on.

    But if you’re the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, there’s another good reason to visit Seattle: Sen. Maria Cantwell’s personal request that the FCC hold a public hearing on media consolidation.

  • All Voters Deserve Access to the Information Hiding in Political Files

    Libby Reinish
    May 2, 2012

    Last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to put television broadcasters’ public and political files online to make them easier to access. This is a major victory.

    But while all TV broadcasters will have to migrate the majority of their public records online this year, only stations in the top 50 media markets that are also affiliated with major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC) are required to digitize their political files this election season. All other TV stations can delay posting until 2014.

    These exemptions mean that not a single Spanish-language station will be required to put its political file online this election year. 

  • Public Interest Groups to FCC: Don’t Gamble with the Public Interest

    Libby Reinish
    April 20, 2012

    Less than a week before the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on a proposal that would transform public access to information about political ad spending, it seems the agency may be on the verge of caving to industry pressure. Two out of three FCC commissioners have expressed openness to a broadcast industry counter proposal to segregate information about individual political ads, keeping that information offline and locked in dusty file cabinets.

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