NEW📰: Democracy requires both an informed citizenry and a free press. But how do these ideals show up in public policy? Today, we have a paper out that looks at how media has become highly concentrated, commercialized, and drained of its public interest potential.

“Revitalizing the capacity of the federal government to solve national problems requires preventing the judiciary from politicizing and kneecapping that capacity.” Among our 161 recent recommendations to improve government for workers: reform the courts. https://t.co/BER1b6DkAG

The stakes are clear for this case: If the Supreme Court says presidents can fire independent agency leaders at will, agencies like the FTC—and even the Fed—will lose the insulation needed to protect the economy from politicization and corporate pressure.

Crypto market structure is back on Congress’s agenda, but the details—and potential implications—remain unclear. Brad Lipton’s blog explains how these rules could either protect consumers and markets or leave them exposed to unregulated speculation:

@AnnieLowrey In Detroit, corporate buyers turned hundreds of homes into investment assets, leaving tenants with unsafe, neglected conditions and little recourse. Unchecked corporate ownership is pushing stable housing out of reach for the families that need it most.

Corporations now own 1 in 11 residential parcels in urban areas—and more than 20% in some communities. That consolidation is leaving lower-income families at the mercy of absentee landlords with little stake in local well-being. New from @AnnieLowrey: https://t.co/MHq34ft2Cn

A New Roosevelt Institute Report Confronts the Roots of Our Media Crisis—and Calls for Breaking Up Corporate Media

As Trump 2.0 has repeatedly reminded us, we’ve created a media system susceptible to pressure from all directions. That’s what happens when we treat media as just another market and information as a commodity rather than the foundational public good that it is.

Hey @EUCouncil why don’t you guys go fine these police officers? Or are you’ll to busy trying to steal more money from American Companies and shareholders since you all opened an investigation into @Google now as well?

The role of public power is to ensure that markets actually work for the public. And in the case of media — where information is foundational to the health of our democracy — we have a lot of work to do.

#ICYMI: Our top stories of the week ✅ Pro-corporate media policy is bad for democracy ✅ Billionaire charity can’t fix Trump accounts ✅ What’s behind the affordability crisis More in the #RooseveltRundown ⬇️ https://t.co/XssmKYBqik

These aren’t isolated developments. They’re symptoms of a media system reshaped by decades of policy choices that favored consolidation over the public interest. Our new report maps how we got here, and what a democratic media system must look like.

And now, platforms are paying publishers again—this time to feed real-time reporting into their AI assistants. As more news is routed through those systems, what people see will reflect corporate incentives long before it reflects public ones. https://t.co/BHGcVuxfZ0

A streaming giant absorbing a major studio shows how concentrated economic power has become. Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. isn't just a Hollywood shakeup; it’s another step toward media consolidation. Fewer players. Bigger stakes. Less public control. https://t.co/mHfqaqJtHA

“Should our media system primarily serve democracy, or profit?” NEW in @thenation: the team behind our new report argue the answer must be democracy—and lay out what it’ll take to break up corporate media and rebuild public media: https://t.co/5AYTdqOuQy

We shouldn't need to count on billionaire donations to operate important public programs. We need the tax system to fund effective governing institutions, structured to serve all of us — not the few who can afford to buy their way in. Roosevelt report:

We know this play: big splash, bigger payoff later. TikTok deals → media buys. Crypto “pledges” → White House access. When wealth buys influence, the ROI isn’t moral—it’s political currency.

Dell donating billions to “Trump Accounts” appears to be driven by PR, not generosity. A one-time donation can’t replace public investment, especially when billionaires have spent years fighting taxes that fund real anti-poverty programs.

@IFP It’s not just CHIPS. Across agencies, underinvestment and procedural choke points created a system built to avoid risk, but not deliver for working people. A more effective government ensures public investment actually reaches communities and workers. https://t.co/BER1b6DSqe

“Many systems in government are designed to move slowly.” A new @IFP analysis shows the CHIPS Act’s effort to deploy billions for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing was stalled by rigid hiring caps, drawn-out approvals, and process-first oversight. https://t.co/Mle4J4vhzS

"Market supremacy has shrunk both our understanding of what a civic information economy ought to provide in a democracy, and our imagination about how to better guarantee the public access to reliable, diverse information." Must-read from @rooseveltinst: https://t.co/fJZ9e01UCF

Safeguarding our democracy requires a robust, fully funded public media system, a broader view of the First Amendment that advances citizens’ “right to know,” and a regulatory apparatus shielded from commercial *and* state pressures. Read the report 👇 https://t.co/ReJuHO0ZNa