Desmond Tutu RIP
Statement of The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation: ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS DESMOND MPILO TUTU HAS PASSED AWAY South Africa and the world have lost one of the great spirits and moral giants of…
Democracy In Crisis
Democracy Crisis in the Making, Report Update: 2021 Year-End Numbers Research identifies at least 262 bills were introduced in 41 states this year with the intent to hijack the election process As…
RCFP To Congress: Withdraw Subpoena for Journo’s Records
via Reporters Committee ~~ The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a coalition of 55 media organizations are urging a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S.…
And The Rest Is History…
They Seem Nice On 18 December 1620, the British ship Mayflower docked at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. Dubbed Pilgrims, 102 passengers begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony. ~ And, as History reveals,…
Treason. Sedition. Attempted Coup. Yeah, It’s All Of That
Names. Dates. Times. Places. We already knew that a large number of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives had tried to overturn the free and fair election of 2020; and some…
End of The Allusion
Upon the ruling by U.K.’s High Court to allow the extradition to the U.S. of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, questions about a free press in the United States of America are being…
Williams Signs Off
Anchor ends his nightly Show “The 11th Hour” with a look back on his time with the network ~ After 28 years of peacock logos on much of what I own, it…
THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
At Thursday's virtual Summit for Democracy, President Biden repeated warnings from the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance that the United States is among the growing number of nations – more…
Buh Bye
Statement from CNN: (5:09 PM · Dec 4, 2021·Twitter for iPhone) Chris Cuomo was suspended earlier this week pending further evaluation of new information that came to light about his involvement with…
Adults. Guns. Kids. Guns. Mass Murders. Guns. America’s History. Guns!
Parents Of Oxford High School Shooting Suspect Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter ~ Ethan Crumbley’s mother and father face charges in the wake of a Michigan school shooting that left four students dead…
Roe and The Supremes
Going to go out on a limb here, but I’m pretty sure the Court would be seeing this differently if it was ruling on cocks and balls ~ Rusty coathangers are not…
Backsliding, It’s All The Rage
“This year we coded the United States as backsliding for the first time, but our data suggest that the backsliding episode began at least in 2019” No American – woke or unwoke,…
Is This a Trick Question?
Is There a Republican Alive Who Still Believes in Democracy? Republican state governments are currently passing laws to restrict Democrats from voting in the future, while taking care not to suppress the…
Shrinking Into Nothingness
In an opinion piece on Tuesday at The Guardian, Robert Reich poses a familiar, and some may say inevitable, Democratic Party policy outcome: Is Biden’s entire agenda about to shrink into nothingness?…
Similarities? Undeniable!
School Board Protests Are Not Grassroots Movement, Are Not Spontaneous Conservatives are disrupting school board meetings by shouting, using Nazi salutes, and even physically assaulting anyone they disagree with. But these attacks…
Pandora Papers Shine Big, Broad, Bright Spot Light
From the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ The reporting shows how the United States, in particular, has become an increasingly attractive destination for hidden wealth, although the U.S. and its Western…
81M to 1. 1 Wins
Joe Biden won the 2020 election with over 81.2 million votes; by far the most votes cast for any presidential candidate in U.S. history. That's great. So, how come President Biden and…
Post-Truth and Propaganda In The Digital Age
The Post (Truth) World: Reviving the “Propaganda Model Of News” For Our Digital Age. Rob Williams, Ph.D. “There is a literal truth emergency in the United States, not only regarding distant wars,…
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
