Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media

"A free press informs the public, holds leaders accountable, and provides a forum for debate of local and national issues....In democracies the government is accountable for its actions. Citizens therefore expect to be informed about decisions their governments make on their behalf. The press facilitates this "right to know," by serving as a watchdog over the government, helping citizens to hold government accountable, and questioning its policies.”

– Definition of a Free Press from the U.S. government’s website http://usinfo.state.govhttp://www.usinfo.state.gov.

We believe the government has allowed its own definition of a free press to be subverted by its granting media owners monopoly control. By limiting what is being reported media conglomerates, as well the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio, have succeeded in narrowing the range of opinion expressed while making dissent seem extremist or unpatriotic. Choices made to control information and dissent make it clear that our media has abdicated its role as watchdog over the government, thereby threatening the very life of our democracy. Its citizens, ill informed, are unable to appreciate that their government is no longer accountable to them.

Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media is a grass roots organization serving an area which includes the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, the Capital-Saratoga district and the Adirondacks. We work to promote independent, investigative journalism in our area, to raise consciousness about government control of “mainstream” media and the need to alter the corporate media structure.

The goal of our organization is to make media and government responsible to the people and to reclaim the democratic ideals of the nation.