Chris Hedges explains the importance of ‘robust’ public broadcasting

Chris Hedges just received a Daytime Emmy nomination for his weekly online show “On Contact.” The Truthdig columnist is nominated for Outstanding Information Talk Show Host, alongside mainstream daytime hosts like Dr. Oz and Steve Harvey.

“We need programs where dissident voices that challenge the dominant narrative, that critique systems of power, including of course corporate power, can be heard,” Hedges said in a press release. “And there is almost no space left, and that’s what we’ve tried to do with ‘On Contact,’ to fill that void.”

In a recent interview with RT correspondent Ashlee Banks, Hedges elaborates on why airtime for these “dissident voices” is more crucial than ever before.

“Public broadcasting has become reliant on the same corporate forces – the Koch brothers and others – that dominate the commercial media, which is also corporatized,” Hedges explains. “And with the corporate funding of public broadcasting comes a de facto censorship. You’re not going to get a critique of neoliberalism, the abuses of corporate power, of the fossil fuel industry – and the list goes on and on and on – because they can’t afford to offend their donor base.”

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