If Watergate happened today someone would probably run the story, because it would be the 14th-biggest assault on democracy and freedom this week alone. It would be the one they let through so they can pat themselves on the back for their essential work.

I used to have to regularly remind myself that the bland ugliness of Musk's fondness for dull wordplay like "Macrohard" was relatively inconsequential. But now I think that's wrong. The the lack of intellectual or comedic vigor, so insistently demonstrated, seems central to his brokenness.

My publication @motherjones.com has a 50k in matching donor right now! If you want to support nonprofit media that employes this lil disability journalist, it is also a tax write-off! secure.motherjones.com/flex/mj/key/...

The Republican reaction to Kirk’s murder has been a campaign of state repression that ends with Trumpist toadies deciding what Americans are allowed to think, do and say. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

They are overplaying their hand. The American people don't want to hear that anyone gets to dictate what they think. They're not even trying to lie or euphemize it.

I gave my heart and soul to that place. Built entire sections for journalists pushed out of their home countries. When the writer I hired, Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi Arabia, they paraded me around as a symbol for press freedom. I put MY LIFE on the line to defend journalism and WaPo.

The same week he sues the NY Times for $15 billion... *this* is the headline the NY Times goes with?

Again, across the board the responses to this have been pretty explicitly negative. This was a fuck up on behalf of Trump and ABC/Sinclair/Nexstar

This is why FIRE was such a misguided and harmful project. Many at that organization genuinely value free speech, but as conservatives they put their heads in the sand about the ways their actions helped undermine Americans' understanding of what speech is and is not protected by the constititon.

I've been meaning to write something like this for a while and am happy to report that Paul got to it first and did it better than I would have so now all I have to write is this post urging you to read it.

periodic reminder that there are better sources of recipes and your local drugstore will sell you a book of crossword puzzles for five bucks

Canadian satire:

lol zero (0) liberals are writing letters to axios asking Jim Fucking VandeHei for advice, this is all just made up

Dooming is silly. You cannot know what will happen, except for this one thing: if no one fights against what's happening, then it will happen. The only thing to do is to fight against the evil you fear.

by karl rove am i being pranked here

Can’t prove a counterfactual but I kinda think if those first few days did not have the “politics the right way” bullshit the fascist crackdown wouldn’t have the same juice

"The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check" people sure are suddenly very concerned with live TV being factually accurate

I've long since abandoned any real hope of billionaires seriously funding a real progressive media outlet or platform but the other way you could launch such a thing is with some charismatic talent with pre-existing audience and (presumably) the financial independence to take risks. Just fwiw.

The actual story is not reflected in the headline: ABC cancels Kimmel after threats to its business from Trump administration.

throws a lot of cold water on the bullshit peddled by the whole austin comedy scene, which has constructed an identity around the idea that the election freed up comics to say whatever they want without fear of cancellation

So, yeah, I think folks who spent years pretending the big threat to free speech was some campus conservatives getting sad their peers criticized them, then fell silent when the guy about to be president threatened to imprison people for political speech, have some responsibility for where we are.

can confirm

call me a humorless scold if you must but I don't think "we'll probably murder some fishermen" is a particularly funny joke

the normalization and the lying - not his commited base- are what put him over the threshold of power. twice.

just a reminder of how we got here

this is wild

"this is standard MAGA Republicanism" is an extraordinarily stupid defense of his previous description of it as "practicing politics in exactly the right way." Just a gaping moral and intellectual void. An empty husk seeking his own fame and fortune at all costs.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

If the journalists and news companies you rely on did not make clear prior to last year's election that these were the stakes in last year's election, I would urge you to reconsider your media diet.

I will donate $50 to the charity of your choosing if you can produce a single example of the New York Times telling a source they can't be quoted because they are "too dishonest." Offer is open to NYT employees, btw!

This reminds me that when Donald Trump spent last fall threatening to imprison people for criticizing the Supreme Court, I couldn't find a word of mention of it from FIRE or any other self-styled free speech organization. Possible I missed something but they sure weren't saying much.

Just to be blunt, if you want Wired and 404 and The Verge to employ reporters who understand the memes on bullet casings and can connect them to gaming culture while having the legal and support resources to deal with waves of harassment when we do it… you have to subscribe and pay for the work

shit's bleak and I am both furious and deeply saddened by that this kind of an evergreen post for me, but ... well, see above

They could have done something like this in the Trump immunity case and given a chance for the special counsel to take Trump's federal election subversion charges to trial. Expediting cases is a choice

this could mean anything

the press release writes itself: "I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of the Supreme Court until until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on"

Glad to have had the opportunity to participate in this @onthemedia.bsky.social conversation about Donald Trump's misuse of the military to harass his political opposition, and media coverage of the same. You can listen, etc here: www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

I have been saying all along: the Trump paramilitary forces are a major threat of voter intimidation, and I will be surprised if they are not used towards that goal.

I can't let this go by without pointing out that immigration officers have actually arrested and deported US citizens, even where they have shown ID

Tapping the sign newrepublic.com/article/1598...

a very bad thing I realized a long time ago is that the phrase "constitutional crisis" is 1) mostly meaningless and 2) primarily used by elites to mean "situation that makes clear the inadequacy of our constitution," not "situation in which the constitution is shredded."

SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool

Here's something I post from time to time. My answer to a reader who asked me: what could journalists do NOW to break with some of their more corrosive habits.

A 9-member superlegislature, imposing its political preferences, totally detached from the law, constitution, precedent, & plain meaning of words, just as the Founders intended.

Shorter Brett Kavanaugh: "Papers, please"

Sotomayor: “yet an-other grave misuse of our emergency docket. We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

I get letters.

what in the name of Emily Litella is going on here www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...