It will take a new movement of responsible readers and benefactors to protect independent media

When Disney announced yet another round of layoffs at ABC News last week, it came on the heels of a year in which almost 15,000 media jobs were lost – and capped off a quarter-century in which we’ve seen thousands of independent publications shut down or merged with larger conglomerates.

The upshot is that Americans now find ourselves trapped in an information environment more tightly controlled than ever by a handful of oligarchs.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of the Nation, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she has contributed to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times