WASHINGTON D.C. - A breathtaking abundance of new and old media outlets for obtaining news, information, and entertainment exist today. However, this media cornucopia is under threat from regulations meant to establish fairness, localism, diversity or other lofty ideals which, in practice, would lead to a much less varied and open media universe. These threats to free speech are explored in the new book A Manifesto for Media Freedom, co-authored by Adam Thierer, PFF Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Digital Media Freedom, and Brian Anderson, editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.

Thierer and Anderson seek to highlight efforts by interest groups, elected officials, and regulators to reshape the media landscape in order to fix perceived problems or benefit their own cause or views. "Doing so," the authors conclude, "would be a disaster, a kind of soft or not-so-soft tyranny that would wipe out whole sectors of media, curtailing free speech and impoverishing our democracy."

A Manifesto for Media Freedom discusses such threats to media freedom including efforts to revive the Fairness Doctrine, media ownership regulations, "localism" requirements, net neutrality mandates, a la carte regulation, video game censorship, regulation of social networking sites, and campaign finance laws that threated political speech. The authors offer alternatives to these misguided regulatory proposals to advance a truly free media marketplace. The goal, they argue, is to make sure that citizens have "the freedom to consume whatever information or entertainment we want from whatever sources we choose, without government restricting our choices." Moreover, media creators and distributors should have "the freedom to structure their business affairs as they wish in seeking to offer the public an expanding array of media options, for both news and entertainment."

The book is available for purchase through Amazon.com or Encounter Books. The authors of the book can be reached by contacting Amy Smorodin at asmorodin@pff.org or 202-289-8928 or Clarice Smith at csmith@manhattan-institute.org or 646-839-3318.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) research & educational organization.