Free Press Action recently helped beat back a Speaker Johnson-led effort to reauthorize gov't domestic spying powers.
Amanda Beckham writes that the fight for surveillance reform continues; we'll be mobilizing more pressure to convince lawmakers to side with the privacy rights of all Americans.
"... to go forward with the WHCD without any public naming of Trump’s free speech violations is whitewashing, making these correspondents accessories to his constitutional crimes," Scher adds.
"The best course of action is to cancel the dinner."
Not going to happen, but yes.
... "A fundraising event to support 'programs to educate the public and the value of the First Amendment and a free press' should not have a featured speaker who is the biggest peacetime threat to the First Amendment and a free press in American history," writes @billscher.bsky.social.
They should change its nickname from "Nerd Prom" to "Ball of Shame."
Trump's censorship czar Brendan Carr will attend the "Ball of Shame" as Paramount's special guest, reports @oliverdarcy.bsky.social.
Any journalist worth their salt should have nothing to do with this event—with the possible exception of those covering it to call out their capitulating colleagues.
So many of these strong First Amendment cases -- challenging the Trump admin's censorial campaign to chill dissent -- are winning. Here's another win for free speech against surveillance & ICE tracking: www.theverge.com/policy/91461...
Emails released on Monday by California’s attorney general show Amazon allegedly colluding with other companies to raise the prices of pet treats, khaki pants, eyedrops and other products sold online
Trump “even mused he should award himself the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.”
And that’s not even the craziest part of this excellent WSJ story about the paranoia and chaos that overshadow the White House right now.
Free link:
www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
"We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel & we will vigorously defend the Atlantic & our journalists against this meritless lawsuit," the magazine said in response to Patel's $250 million defamation suit following @sfifz787.bsky.social's reporting.
Let's hope this gets to the discovery phase 👀 👀 👀
Judd at @popular.info analyzed media coverage of Jared Kushner’s diplomatic role in the Iran war.
More than 97% of the stories ignored Kushner’s massive conflict of interest: earning hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from Saudi Arabia, a kingdom with a keen interest in prosecuting the war.
Not a dime of taxpayer money or govt contracts should go to Palantir.
What we did last week:
Flew a banner over and drove billboard trucks around the Paramount Studio lot as the Ellisons et al threw a red-carpet party to woo advertisers to trust their brands to Trump-friendly, ratings-challenged CBS News.
www.freepress.net/blog/free-pr...
If Patel makes good on his threats to sue The Atlantic for this piece, I hope the magazine's owners don't buckle under the pressures of lawfare (see Disney and Paramount) and allow the case to get to the discovery phase where his neglect and abuse can be fully exposed.
The Atlantic's @sfifz787.bsky.social interviews more than two dozen inside sources. "They described Patel’s tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability."
Spicy read:
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
"Hungary’s lesson is that media capture happens more easily in countries where media power has been consolidated into the hands of the few," writes @timkarr.bsky.social.
"Providing a resilient ecosystem for independent & local media to thrive is essential to defeating 21st-century autocrats."
"Popular momentum to block the merger is growing," writes @timkarr.bsky.social about the Paramount deal.
"State attorneys general need to step in & political leaders everywhere need to speak out against this deal. Advertisers, too, should consider what they’re buying into when they buy into CBS."
Mark Rufalo warns Congress against the Paramount-WBD merger:
"You don't have to watch 'Citizen Kane' or read '1984' to understand that the concentrated oligarchic control this merger represents is a threat to a free press, an informed populace & democracy itself."
www.youtube.com/live/xETe83T...
The democrats voting with in favor of a clean reauthorization of this authority have learned absolutely nothing.
Analysis by CNN’s Harry Enten finds that Trump’s net approval among non-college whites — a core group making up his support base — has nosedived by a shocking 34 points.
x.com/ForecasterEn...
Pedro's got this ...
Emmy Award-winning writer and producer @damonlindelof.bsky.social — best known for co-creating "Lost," "The Leftovers" and "Watchmen" — tells Pressing Issues why the Paramount-WBD merger is a non-starter for Hollywood's creative industry.
Read it!
Rated PG-13
pressingissues.org/damon-lindel...
Here's @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social's take on that butt-clenchingly cringey Lauren Sánchez profile by the Times' Amy Chozick:
To let you in on the joke would be ruinous to the joke.
The cringe is the point.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/profile-of...
... or here.
... or here ...
... or here ...
... or here ...
... "Neither Trump nor Orbán has been content with simply targeting journalists, writes NYU's Amrit Singh who co-authored a report drawing parallels between Trump and Orbán’s systematic attacks on independent media.
"They have aimed their sights on regulatory bodies, too."
... Reporters Without Borders reports that Orbán used media buyouts by government-connected “oligarchs” to build “a true media empire subject to his party’s orders.”
It's a playbook that's appealed to Trump & his FCC stooge Brendan Carr, who've eagerly handed the media power to rightwing allies.
Hungarians found a path out of dictatorship against major odds, including a leader who tilted media in his favor.
@kimlanelaw.bsky.social explains to @contrariannews.org how Orban-friendly oligarchs took over Hungarian media, & how independent journalists used the internet to build an alternative.
