REMARKS OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS
FOUR FREEDOMS AWARDS CEREMONY
HYDE PARK, NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 17, 2011
To receive this medal today—inspired by my hero Franklin Roosevelt, on this hallowed ground, alongside four 
Americans who have contributed so much to advancing the Four Freedoms, in the company of my wonderful 
family (each of whom is entitled to a share of this award), and surrounded by so many friends—is, for me, the 
honor of all honors.  You give me a truly moving moment, and I thank the Roosevelt Institute for something I 
will cherish so long as I live.
More even than honor, this award confers challenge—challenge to me, challenge to you, challenge to our 
nation.  The challenge is to guarantee Freedom of Speech and Expression which, translated into Twenty-first 
century American terms, means that no citizen should be denied the news and information he or she needs to 
participate responsibly in our democracy any place in the land.     
Freedom of Speech and Expression is inextricably linked with Freedom of the Press, with an uninhibited, 
competitive and vibrant marketplace of ideas, and with the absence of consolidated control in that marketplace.  
That is what the First Amendment and the first of Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms are all about. These have been the 
premise of our system of self-government since the beginning.  A shining goal—but never fully achieved and 
every day threatened.  
In our own generation, in our own country, these Freedoms have been pushed back by special interests that have 
ravaged the diversity of local journalism and left in their path of destruction a diminished and too often 
dumbed-down civic dialogue.  Freedom of Speech and Expression suffers from the excesses of financial 
speculators who are more interested in the bottom line on the quarterly report than in quality news on the front 
page or the evening news.  Freedom of Speech and Expression is further impaired by a federal government 
absent without leave for more than 30 years from its responsibility to protect the public interest.  Instead, 
government—and I speak specifically of the Federal Communications Commission where I work—has abetted 
the decline of our small “d” democratic dialogue by, for example, failing to insist that the people’s airwaves 
serve the people’s interest.
Building news and information infrastructure that digs more deeply, gathers facts before shouting opinions, and 
affords expression to the many voices of this nation’s wondrous diversity may be our greatest calling now.  Our 
country confronts challenges to its viability in some ways reminiscent of the 1930s, making it a national 
imperative that every American be empowered with the news and information essential for knowledgeable 
decision-making.  Without that, the challenges go misunderstood, untended, unresolved.  When our media, our 
press and our journalism catch cold, democracy catches pneumonia.  Dr. New Deal prescribed strong cures for 
the challenges of his time; now we need the restorative medicine of reform in ours.
Now, as then, powerful forces combine against needed reform.  We can cower before their money and their 
lobbies in unreasoning, unjustified fear—or, in true Rooseveltian fashion, we can take them on, relish the battle, 
mobilize the American people, and do democracy’s work. Time and again, We the People have come together 
to renew our Freedoms.  Citizen action can still work, even in this era when so few wield so much outrageous 
influence.  Organized citizen action is how America overcomes.  Generations of reformers proved it—
abolitionists, civil rights crusaders, women’s rights champions, consumer advocates, disabilities activists, labor 
unions, media rights defenders—committing to a cause, challenging powers grown too strong, making a 
difference and moving America forward. Franklin Roosevelt achieved his victories because such groups were 
there, helping him, sometimes even prodding him, and together they redeemed the promise of America.  Now 
Freedom of Speech and Expression summons us to action again.  Seek no farther for this generation of 
Americans’ rendezvous with destiny.