Veteran journalist Dan Rather is currently on stage at the Big Tent in Denver speaking on the dangers of media consolidation.

(remember, live streaming coverage can be found at http://www.commoncause.org/bigtent.)

He is pointing out something we discussed in our media reform plan for a new administration that the founders of this nation explicitly protected the press in the Bill of Rights because it is the role of the press to inform the public about what the government is doing right or wrong.

Rather says that his experience is that consolidation and corporatization of the media has led to a media that focuses more on safe stories and regurgitating the administration's message as to what they want the people to hear. And of course, that is what the media is NOT supposed to do.

He says the reason the mainstream press isn't more critical is that they are afraid of being accused of editorializing simply by researching and reporting facts that don't fit with what the administration wants people to hear.

His key message is that we NEED citizen journalism, we NEED owners with the guts to take any heat from talk radio, and we NEED to stop media consolidation.