Senator Durbin is trying to sunset Section 230, which turned 30 years old this week. There’s been growing bipartisan support in Congress to do this — but Durbin told me some Senators who are bellowing about holding Big Tech accountable in public are singing a different tune behind the scenes.

Former WaPo staff: I’m sorry for the bloodbath. Question Everything is taking pitches for stories about the state of journalism, attacks on the press, our information ecosystem, and accountability for big tech. Pitch us/send tips: [email protected] Signal: brihreed.45

Best podcast moment ... from our special Minnesota dispatch. ..

[email protected] Why is your host saying it's important to note Donald Trump "isn't accused of wrongdoing" related to the Epstein case? That's patently false -- there are multiple Epstein-related abuse accusations against Trump. He has denied them. But he has been accused of wrongdoing.

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

A special dispatch from a dad and former data journalist who’s been tracking, filming, and shaming ICE agents in Minnesota. Listen on Apple 🍎: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...

According to SCOTUS, law enforcement officers must act with “scrupulous exactitude” to avoid impeding on any first-amendment protected activities. That’s the standard we should be holding them to: with reporters; with protesters; with observers.

Two journalists arrested this morning -- @donlemonofficial.bsky.social Lemon and @georgiafortunato.bsky.social -- for covering ICE as they're killing Americans in the streets. This is a five alarm fire.

"Orbanized" indeed.

Sharing a very relevant convo this week with the leader of a state that fought ICE — both on the ground and online — this fall. Perhaps some helpful lessons in this for Minnesotans and others right now. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q... .

I know it doesn’t feel like it, but the truth is still critical. It’s threatening to power, which is why they are going to such lengths to bury it.

ICE is using taxpayer money to pay influencers and staffers to debate which clickbaity captions and pop music will make clips of agents roughing people up go viral. @drewharwell.com from @washingtonpost.com got thousands of team chats from inside showing how this propaganda gets made. Listen ⬇️

Drew and the @washingtonpost.com ‘s reporting on this is excellent - I hope you listen.

Live convo at 5 ET today with an OnlyFans creator whose life was messed with by one change to internet policy open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Wednesday at 5ET - a live chat with the OnlyFans creator from our recent episode about FOSTA/SESTA and Section 230. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Aside from the sheer degradation of our press that this exchange is indicative of - sue over what? What cause of action is there to force somebody to publish an interview?

Fellow reporters: would you run with this sourcing, particularly given the video evidence? @cbsnews.com please, tell us more: "two U.S. officials briefed on [Ross'] medical condition." What kind of officials? Who "briefed" them? This could describe a game of telephone.

This week, the Senate passed a bill allowing victims of deepfake porn to sue. But it only allows them to sue the person who *created* the deepfake.

Crucial reminder from Harper Lee that we are plot-driven animals

Thanks Jacob and the rest of our group for joining us in Altadena!

Today once again proved that everyday citizens protesting their government are braver than the titans who own the largest media corporations, run the biggest law firms and lead the most powerful technology companies.

We invited a group of reporters to Good Neighbor Bar in Altadena to talk about the personal impact the LA wildfires had on them. And also some of the harrowing – and surprising – requests they got from people to check if their homes were still standing.

Is there any active threat in the arctic region that is making this an urgent priority? This must be dadaist flood-the-zone communication strategy.

Why?

A friend’s suggestion for the entirety of my script for our episode this week: “Remember when we talked about media capture this is it OK? See you next week.”

"These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories."

A decent night, I suppose, to encourage you to follow our independent reporting on media, journalism, and the state of truth. It's free: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...

This is media capture. There doesn't need to be an explicit directive from the White House for the effect to be the same.

This is what I thought when I heard 900+ FBI employees were working round the clock in the spring to go through the files… that’s a lot of potential whistleblowers/leakers. My signal for anyone out there: brihreed.45

Shocking! (Not.) Though interestingly public records guru @jasonleopold.bsky.social told me one thing that could be taking the authorities more time is *unredacting* files they'd redacted in the spring, per the new rules in the Epstein transparency act. We can only hope.

Shocking! (not.) Listen to our episode with public records guru @jasonleopold.bsky.social to hear about the inner workings of the FBI's handling of the Epstein files, and the best avenues we have for forcing their release - one of which involves an 8-year-old lawsuit from a defunct magazine. ⬇️

Thanks to Nieman and @joshuabenton.com for letting me share a prediction for journalism that is something I've had to really challenge my own thinking on this year.

Good morning. It’s Epstein files day.

Let’s make sure we enshrine legal immunity for them. No lawsuits allowed.

What the hell does this Truth Social merger with a nuclear fusion company even mean? Anybody have insight into this?

A senator just called Section 230, the law that created the internet as we know it, a "vessel for evil". There's a new bipartisan push to repeal it, as we approach its 30th anniversary in February. youtube.com/watch?v=igcufxnw578&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE

A friendly reminder that the Epstein files are legally mandated to be released by the DOJ this Friday. Things that the administration might do between now and then, including nationwide addresses, should be viewed in that light. open.substack.com/pub/question...

The deadline to release the Epstein files is nigh. What hanky panky could the government pull? What might they withhold? Redact? And how can the public make sure that doesn’t happen? This week's show with FOIA master @jasonleopold.bsky.social and his trusty first amendment attorney. Links👇

The deadline to release the Epstein files is next week. Join me Thursday at 5 ET with public record expert @jasonleopold.bsky.social to talk about what the DOJ could do to avoid putting out info and what options the public has to make sure we get these files. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Was Michael Wolff “getting the story” from Jeffrey Epstein or doing something else? We’ve been reminded recently that Wolff at one point put together a group of investors, including Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, to buy New York Magazine. So the relationship wasn’t purely journalistic.

This is media capture occurring before our eyes. And corruption. The Paramount-WarnerBrothers-Netflix showdown is being reported as a normal regulatory situation but it’s not normal to have the president weighing in directly on behalf of a deal his friends and son-in-law are involved in.

This is by the far the most shocking thing I’ve read about the whole Nuzzi saga. No chapter breaks!?!? Why?

"We do not support aliens coming to the United States to work as censors muzzling Americans." It’s awful that we’ve let fact-checking be equated with censorship in the wider imagination. Fact-checking is the opposite of censorship — it’s essential protected speech. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

"Let Him Hang Himself." Three reporters, with three different takes, on Michael Wolff's emails with Jeffrey Epstein. @tanglenews.bsky.social @plagueyears.bsky.social @tarapalmeri.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...

"You cannot stir things apart." Peaceful rest, Mr. Stoppard.

. Senators Blumenthal and Hawley have asked the FTC and SEC to investigate Meta for knowingly raking in billions of $ on ads that are scamming its users. This is after @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social got internal documents showing the scale of the problem. Here are some wild numbers from his story 🧵:

Without comment podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...

We submitted a ridiculous fake ad to Facebook for a free sub-orbital trip to space. They approved it and took our money. They're making billions of dollars this way, and they know it.

This is media capture right here

Yesterday a dark and crazy story came out about a secret Chinese national (possibly) who got elected mayor of a small town in the Philippines and went on to run a human trafficking operation for a "scam center" - a compound of 800 people forced to run online scams globally.