How are Jefferson’s wolves and sheep today?

 Robert McChesney.

How Capitalism conquered the Internet is the title of a recent article by Robert McCheseney and was published online by In These Times (www.inthesetimes.com). The magazine describes itself as “an independent, nonprofit magazine”, which is dedicated to advancing democracy and economic justice, informing movements for a more humane world, and providing an accessible forum for debate about the policies that shape our future”.

The McChesney article is worth reading if you are interested in the media, journalism and digital technologies. He quotes Thomas Jefferson writing in 1787 how the people should be given “full information” through the “channel of the public papers, and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people”. How this was achieved is discussed in the article.

McChesney also discusses Jefferson’s observation that in the Europe where he was the US ambassador to France that “under the pretence of governing they have divided their nation into two classes wolves and sheep”. Jefferson added that “I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe”.

McChesney writes that, “The hand of capital seems heavier and heavier on the steering wheel, taking us to places off the democratic grid, and nowhere is the Internet’s failure clearer or the stakes higher than in journalism”.

McChesney makes a case for “constructing non profit and non commercial operations to do journalism, produce culture, provide Internet access and serve as bedrock local institutions”.

You can read his article here: http://inthesetimes.com/article/14708/how_capitalism_conquered_the_internet/