Unrigging the media and the economy

Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, discusses his recommendations for changes in governmental policy towards media to improve the functioning of democracy. This includes recommending citizen-directed subsidies for media, documented in his 2016 book on Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer.

He also comments on legislation that is either currently pending or likely to be introduced in the current 2021-22 US Congressional session. This updates his discussion on KKFI last October, when he supported the Local Journalism Sustainability Act of 2019, while noting he would prefer something substantially stronger, as outlined in his (2016) Rigged. In this book, he notes that the unemployment rate for blacks tends to be double that of whites, and for back teens it’s much worse. Between 2010 and 2016, the employment rate for black teens increased from 14.5 to 21.5 percent. He noted that, “it is difficult to envision a social program that would have the same effect on the career and life prospects of young blacks as increasing their probability of getting a job by 50 percent.. He also noted that, “The gains from getting to full employment will not be evenly shared. They will go disproportionately to blacks and Hispanics and to people with less education.“

Baker is interviewed by Joe Ballegeer, an activist with Our Revolution – Kansas City, who is scheduled to receive a PhD in economics from the University of Missouri at Kansas City this spring, and Radio Active regular Spencer Graves.

Viewing options include Zoom and Facebook Live for the full hour in addition to the first half being broadcasted as Radio Active Magazine.

More background on media and democracy is available in the Wikiversity article on “Confirmation bias and conflict“.

Image “File:Dean Baker.jpg” copyright CC BY-SA, available from Wikimedia Commons.

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