The US has a history of violent, racist authoritarian rule, with the press helping to make it happen. As our democracy erodes further, it's worth asking which parts of our press are serving democratic ends--and which are participating in an authoritarian project. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

THIS!!!!! www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

It’s up to all of us to defend the freedom to learn, the freedom to think—to stand against censorship and thought control. #highered faculty and staff: please join us at standtogetherhighered.org (it’s free)

#highered Faculty—please join the AAUP and start a chapter if your campus doesn’t have one or a faculty union. They are working for ALL of us.

We’re not even officially launching this through our regular communication channels until tomorrow morning! And what’s more, it’s free! But that’s not all!! We have @krforde.bsky.social from @standhighered.bsky.social helping us kick this thing off!!!

Did you know newspaper editors (the press!) helped plan and execute political violence and electoral fraud to overthrow the biracial Reconstruction era government of Mississippi and replace it with an authoritarian regime that lasted generations? 1/3 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

(Like if you agree.) If you have yet to notice, the @nytimes.com Editorial Board has an Autocracy Tracker, which follows 12 markers of democratic erosion in the US. Launched late Oct 2025, updated early Feb 2026. Needs to be highlighted on home page every day! Updated more often. Let's go! 1/2

Head coaches and athletic administrators across the U.S. are joining together to support a public letter defending the universities and colleges that form the backbone of the sports we love.

This kind of thought policing goes against every precept of academic freedom. If you’re in #highered, join us at standtogetherhighered.org. We are nonpartisan and free—an we are building campus-level teams to protect our shared mission of serving the public good.

OK, Bluesky academics: what can we do to expose and push back against this Orwellian effort to control the freedom to learn and to teach? Seriously. What Texas A&M is doing matters for all of us and all of our students and all in our society.

"This represents saving higher education, saving public research and the standing up of faculty, staff and students," — Veena Dubal, AAUP General Counsel & law professor at the University of California, Irvine. #DefendHigherEd

THIS is what we face in higher ed. Join us at Stand Together for Higher Ed—a grassroots movement of faculty and staff at universities and colleges across the US. We are building the resistance and renewal infrastructure we need in these dangerous times. Join! It’s free. standtogetherhighered.org

Jamelle Bouie always writes from a pro-democracy position. If only the NYT as a whole would begin a Democracy Desk to do this, too: track and make visible how the consolidation of authoritarian power in US is happening. What news outlets do you think are doing this well?

The federal government is trying to place the University of California under political control. Join with UC Unbowed before the Board of Regents meeting on November 18-20 and tell President James B. Milliken and the Regents to protect UC independence. alumni.standforcampusfreedom.org/petitions/un...

Faculty and staff cannot allow our college/university leaders to make these odious side deals with the federal govt. Please join us at Stand Together for Higher Ed: www.standtogetherhighered.org. It’s free. And we’re building collective power to stand together against this madness.

❤️ this! You’ve met confidence intervals before — in polls: “Candidate A 52% ± 3%.” That ± 3% is the ring: we’re 95% sure the real number’s somewhere inside it. Polls dance round and suppose. The truth sits in the middle and declines comment. #statssky #polling #academicsky

Robert Frost was certainly more familiar with iambic pentameter than he was with estimated parameters, but in 1942 he wrote a couplet that sounds very much like a poet's perception of a confidence interval: #statistics #statssky #academicsky

Meet our new scholar-mentor pair: Laurie & Michael! Laurie is studying Biology at UMass Boston. She’ll be supported by Michael, a graduate student at UMass Boston pursuing his Master’s in Molecular Biology. #AcademicSky #MentorshipMatters #HigherEd #StudentSuccess #EduSky #BostonNonProfit

📣 STHE wants to hear from you! Join us for one of our upcoming brainstorming sessions focused on how to respond to the White House compact. We would love to hear your thoughts and feelings on how our community should be responding. Register at buff.ly/R9VHdrm #AcademicSky #Academia

Many institutions, organizations, & individuals are standing together to say NO to the White House Compact. Faculty fellows at leading Institutes for Advanced Studies are adding their voice to the choir with a new open letter: #AcademicSky #Academia

So UVA rejects the Compact but still makes an odious side deal. We invite all UVA faculty and staff to join Stand Together for Higher Ed. It’s free, and we’re building community and strategies to stop this madness www.standtogetherhighered.org

#academicsky, particularly #Purdue, should you happen to be visiting #Boston for any reason in the near future, here's a little something you might consider doing on any Wednesday. #StandUpForScience.

🙌 Yes, this. The people, the lives, the health of our planet, the pursuit of just and fair outcomes and human rights and a better world. Legal storytelling helps us understand what is and imagine a better way. ❤️

Researchers at Duke Cancer Institute are looking at obesity's impact on breast cancer and whether GLP-1 drugs might help jump-start a more robust immune response. 🔗 Read more: https://medschool.duke.edu/stories/obesity-weakens-cancer-immunity-can-glp-1-drugs-turn-it-back #AcademicSky #MedSky

Fellows at Institutes for Advanced Study have issued a letter calling on universities to reject the Trump admin's Compact (loyalty oath). If you're faculty/staff at a US college or university, please join Stand Together for Higher Ed (it's free). www.standtogetherhighered.org/news-updates...

At a moment when higher ed as a pillar of democracy is under political attack in the US, we cannot allow college and university leaders to try to control the student press or any kind of student expression. www.standtogetherhighered.org

Proud of the Penn faculty!!! www.inquirer.com/education/up...

MIT!!!!! YES!!!!!!! www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Thoughts and prayers for Donald J Trump

The federal govt is trying to take over US universities. This is called “authoritarian consolidation.” We CANNOT let it happen. Sign this @aaup.org petition. Say no to loyalty oaths. www.defendingourcampuses.org

Please repost: Sign this petition against university loyalty oaths. Then if you are faculty/staff at a US university, join Stand Together for Higher Ed (it's free!) at www.standtogehterhighered.org. We are doing great things together to defend and renew higher ed. www.defendingourcampuses.org

PLEASE REPOST: An alumni petition you can sign whether you attended one of the 9 universities asked to sign a Trump admin loyalty oath. We are in dangerous times. And we must resist. Please sign and share widely.

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools the federal government just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freedom across America. alumni.standforcampusfreedom.org/petitions/tr...

"It’s not the journalists’ burden to keep the government’s secrets for it," @seth-stern.bsky.social told @columjournreview.bsky.social. "That is the opposite of the press’s job, which is to tell the public what the government doesn’t want the public told."

Yes to all of this! Stand Together for Higher Ed is building a resistance strategy. Faculty and staff across US higher education: please join! It's free and we must all stand together. www.standtogetherhighered.org

Please join Stand Together for Higher Ed if you are faculty or staff at these institutions--or any other higher ed institution in the US. We are building a campaign to resist. Joining is free. www.standtogetherhighered.org

We are organizing to resist The Compact. Faculty and staff at all US higher ed institutions: stand with us. It's free. www.standtogetherhighered.org #academicsky #highered www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Are you frustrated that the NYT isn't covering the actions of this Trump administration as authoritarian consolidation? Consider reading my Substack posts on the subject. The NYT needs to cover democratic erosion plainly and clearly. kathyrobertsforde.substack.com/p/more-on-wh...

Mandami Momentum! @perrybaconjr.bsky.social Perry Bacon's political analysis of Mandami's campaign (and coalition-building skills!) is super smart. @newrepublic.com Zohran Mamdani Is Threading One of the Trickiest Needles in Politics newrepublic.com/article/2009... via @newrepublic.com

"Why Doesn’t the New York Times Have a Democracy Desk?" MAGA is consolidating authoritarian power in the US. Democratic backsliding is happening fast. Why won't the NYT cover this breakdown of US democracy with the clarity it deserves? kathyrobertsforde.substack.com/p/why-doesnt...

“Some faculty, student and alumni groups, however, have begun to stand up and make their voices heard.” Yes we have. Stand with us; we commit to educating for freedom. Thank you, Michael S. Roth. @standhighered.bsky.social

Wouldn't it be great if the New York Times created a Democracy Desk to cover so much of what's happening as what it clearly is: the rise of an authoritarian regime and the rapid erosion of democracy? Would love to get your thoughts on my Substack on the subject open.substack.com/pub/kathyrob...

Stand Together for Higher Ed stands with Emory AAUP. If you’re faculty at Emory, please join. AAUP is fighting for higher ed. We are not powerless!!! Please consider joining standtogetherhighered.org (staff welcome, too!). Free and we don’t share names or teams publicly.

Stand Together for Higher Ed stands with UT Austin AAUP President Pauline’s defense of free inquiry and against state repression of institutional autonomy, free speech, and freedom to learn. If you are #highered faculty or staff, join our movement: standtogetherhighered.org

THIS is what it looks like to report clearly on democratic erosion in the US. As always, @perrybaconjr.bsky.social is on it. So glad he’s now @newrepublic.com where his political reporting skills and sensibilities have wider latitude.

Page One of today's NYT:

"What's happening now is what happened in Hungary and Turkey, which is using regulatory threats and lawsuits as a way to capture the media, and to capture the information ecosystem. We should be all very, very concerned," says @krforde.bsky.social. newrepublic.substack.com/p/kimmels-su...

"Ownership matters. When you've got Paramount that has all these other business interests, they have made deals to protect their other interests. Same thing with Bezos. Same thing with the Walt Disney Company. I'm hoping the New York Times is going to hold the line," says @krforde.bsky.social.

@perrybaconjr.bsky.social always asks such great questions. His writing is great, too—smart & incisive &pro-democracy all the way. Read him @newrepublic.com