Robert W. McChesney

Robert Waterman McChesney (; December 22, 1952 – March 25, 2025) was an American professor notable in the history and political economy of communications, and the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He co-founded Free Press, a national media reform organization. From 2002 to 2012, he hosted Media Matters, a weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILL (AM), Illinois Public Media radio.

Background and education McChesney was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 22, 1952, to Samuel Parker McChesney, an advertising salesman for This Week magazine, and his wife Edna Margaret "Meg" (née McCorkle) McChesney, a nurse. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he studied history and political economy.

Career After college, McChesney worked for a time as a sports stringer for United Press International (UPI) and published a weekly newspaper.

McChesney began to report on the media itself and became an expert in the field, entering academic studies in this area. He did graduate work at the University of Washington, obtaining a PhD in Communications there in 1989. He was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

In his article "Farewell To Journalism" (October 2012), McChesney described what he considered the deterioration of the current U.S. media system; he said that this freefall threatens the democratic system itself. He highlights what scholars believe to be the key characteristics of healthy journalism, and says, "It is necessary...that the media system as a whole makes such journalism a realistic expectation for the citizenry."

McChesney proposed a $200 annual Citizenship News Voucher to support journalism.

A backer of Bernie Sanders's 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, McChesney was critical of how major news outlets covered Sanders's campaigns.