How Many Hearings Is It Going to Take
Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice have to this point resisted calls to charge the former president for his role in the assault on the U.S. Capitol - which…
Hey Joe! You’re Being a Nero. Stop Fiddling!
'Fight for Us Goddamnit': Frustration Grows Over Biden Fecklessness Amid GOP Destruction via CommonDreams.org We simply cannot make promises, hector people to vote, and then refuse to use our full power…
Welcome to the Country of Death With Politicians Who Don’t Give A F*ck! … UPDATED
Fourth of July in a Dying America UPDATE: Police Confirm 7th Person Dead A 22-year old male using a high-powered rifle shooting from a rooftop at a Fourth of July parade in…
Surprise Hearing Reveals The Makeup of an Armed Coup
On Monday, by news outlets big and small, it was called a surprise hearing. However, what was revealed Tuesday, 28 June, 2022, during the 6th hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate…
Hypocrites and Hucksters and History
In his opinion piece at The Washington Post, Dana Milbank lays bare the hypocrisy and dangerous 'new precedent' of the radical right-wing majority at the US Supreme Court. Yes, Americans should be…
Overturning Roe v. Wade Just Tip of the Deadly Iceberg
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made clear in his concurring opinion regarding the overturning of Roe v. Wade that the high court has no intention of stopping its rollback of Americans'…
Jan 6 Hearing Four
The Takeaway
Reporters Committee Freedom of the Press Award Honorees 2022
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced the recipients of this year’s Freedom of the Press Awards, which recognize the accomplishments of leaders in the news media and legal fields…
Opening Night Tops The Hype
The prime-time January 6 Select Committee hearing on Thursday delivered the promised statements of accusation and painful recollections, with all the receipts. I and at least 20 million in the U.S., and…
Jan 6 Committee Hearing: 2022.06.09 19.00hrs
Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they…
Canada Getting Nervous About The U.S. It Should Be
Canada must take seriously the cross-border influence of the growing anti-democratic forces in the United States That stark warning is issued in a newly published report produced by a task force of…
Memorial Day 2022.05.30
Thank You, All
19 School Children, 2 Teachers. Heartbreaking.
Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas ~ Remember Their Names Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10 Miranda Mathis, 11 Amerie Jo Garza, 10 Xavier Lopez, 10 Uziyah Garcia, 8 Jose Flores, 10 Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez,…
America At That Crossroad. Again. What’s Next?
Americans Have A Decision To Make. Choose Love and Respect, Succeed. Continue Choosing Hate, Devolve. (more…)
White Supremacists and Murder: America’s Shame
An 18-year-old white supremacist went to a grocery market in an African American neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday with an assault rifle and full body armor and – in less…
Select Committee Subpoenas Five House Reps
Chairman Bennie G. Thompson announced Thursday, 2022.05.12, that the Select Committee has subpoenaed Representatives Kevin McCarthy, Scott Perry, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, and Mo Brooks for deposition testimony as part of the…
Strategy: Losing The Love
Losing The Love – When You Don’t Fight For It There is “a sharp decline in enthusiasm among the people who put the White House and Congress in Democratic hands, contributing significantly…
World Press Freedom Annual Index
World Press Freedom Index 2022 by Reporters Without Borders The always anticipated annual report has been published, and, for the United States of America not much has changed. The U.S. still lags…
The ‘Draft’ – A Right-Wing Mission Statement
The draft of Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion overruling Roe, which was obtained by Politico, [a right-wing news outlet] is right-wing Republican politics masquerading as law. In the draft, Alito declares: "Roe…
Press Freedom: The Good and The Bad
Theme for World Press Freedom Day 2022 is ‘journalism under digital siege’ ~ Tuesday, 3 May, is World Press Freedom Day — a day to celebrate press freedom across the globe and…
Press Freedom Last Bastion
Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, ends his required comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner with an impassioned speech to a room full of journalists, pundits…
Never Forget: 1995.04.19
A terrorist attack on 19 April 1995 at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people including 19 children and over 850 were injured. It was the deadliest…
They Also Burned Books
Florida Republicans continue their war on education after rejecting this week more than 50 proposed math textbooks that allegedly “included references to Critical Race Theory”. The Florida Department of Education announced Friday…
And So It Began…
Aedanus Burke, born in Galway, Ireland, 1743, immigrated to the American Colonies landing first in Virginia, 1769, then settled in South Carolina in 1775. In 1788, Burke was a member of the…
Eric Boehlert R.I.P.
Via AP: Media critic Eric Boehlert, who created the Press Run website and wrote for Rolling Stone and Media Matters for America, was killed in a bicycle accident. He was 57. An…
ALA Top 10 Most Challenged
Book challenges top 700 – the most since 2000. The American Library Association (ALA) kicked off National Library Week (2022.04.04) with the release of its State of America's Libraries Report, highlighting the…
The Press, The Disconnect
Why is the press rooting against Biden? At Pressrun.media, Eric Boehlert asks and answers the question: Like clockwork, the first Friday of the month brought another blockbuster jobs report. The U.S. economy…
Sunday Reads
Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema and the Colonization of American Indians. Ward Churchill. 1992. “The white man made us many promises, but he kept only one. He promised to take…
Emergency Call
Journalists in Ukraine Need Help
> Ukrainska Pravda <
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Those who cover the frontlines need first aid kits, medical supplies, flak jackets, helmets. Those trapped in towns and cities under fire need safe passage, relocation and humanitarian assistance.
More at International Federation of Journalists.
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Journalists in Gaza need your help. Here’s how:
International Media Support (IMS), the Danish-based media development organisation, is collecting donations for:
- Food, clothes, blankets and other utilities for journalists and their families
- Safety equipment and gear for journalists, such as press vests, helmets, cell phones and cameras.
- Psychosocial support for journalists
- Ongoing support to keep as many media outlets as possible operating.
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THE TRACKER
Freedom of the Press Foundation
Court says First Amendment means less free speech
[WHAAAAT ?!?!?!?]
If it sounds backward to use the First Amendment to undermine a law meant to protect free speech, that’s because it is.
Yet that’s just what a federal court of appeals did in a recent decision on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — the federal law that shields online services from legal liability for posts made by their users.
We explain on our website how the court’s nonsensical decision threatens online freedom of speech by journalists and everyone else.
Jobs & Events
Opportunity for Young Journalists
Rising D.C. reporters can apply for a yearlong reporting fellowship. The National Press Foundation is accepting applications for the 2025 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship.
Fellows will learn more about the White House, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, the Capitol and other key Washington institutions. They’ll review politics and policy with regulators, lawmakers, experts and the best reporters in the business.
To apply, submit two recent work samples, a letter of support from an editor or supervisor and a brief autobiography. Application Deadline is Dec. 2
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Color Of Change, in partnership with the National Education Association, invites you to watch “Educating for Equity: Brown v Board of Education 70 Years Later,” a short video featuring a range of young and older thought leaders talking about the groundbreaking case and the challenges facing our public education system today. Participants discuss what we need to do to protect education moving forward.
Issues
The Reading List
Lie Machines
How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives
by Philip N. Howard
Lie Machines is full of behind-the-scenes stories from the world’s biggest and most damagingly successful misinformation initiatives.
Howard, not only shows how these campaigns evolved from older propaganda operations but also exposes their new powers, gives us insight into their effectiveness, and explains how to shut them down. Howard is a sociologist and communication researcher who studies the impact of information technologies on democracy and social inequality. Book Here:
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The ReMindEr
Speakables
The New Normal? ~ The first tool of authoritarian regimes is always informational control—both in the gathering of information on the public through surveillance and the filtration of information to the public through owned media. In its early days, the Internet seemed to pose a challenge to authoritarian regimes, but with the advent of social media, we are watching the construction of architectures that fulfill the needs of every authoritarian regime: surveillance and information control. Authoritarian movements are possible only when the general public becomes habituated to—and numbed by—a new normal. Christopher Wylie.
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What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. ‘What to a slave is the 4th of July’. 1852. Frederick Douglass.
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The First ~ Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870 – 1942)
The first published female photo-journalist in the United States and the first female night photographer. She is best known for her freelance news photographs, particularly of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and portraits of places such as Bohemian Greenwich Village. Her trademarks were her self-described “ability to hustle” and her tenacity in overcoming gender barriers in her profession.
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Repeat After Me
And it gets you elected
