the definition of 'quid pro quo' has been narrowed to the point of 'did you hand them a big pile of cash and say 'please do this specific illegal thing' for me'

Must-read by journalist Mario Guevara for @bittersouth.bsky.social: "On the afternoon of Saturday, June 14, 2025, my life changed completely. Just as I was doing a regular news coverage, I was arrested by the police in the state of Georgia."

“Debate Me” culture is not organic, endemic, or apolitical. This mode of high jacking discourse is and has been central to a 30-year conservative training program that has produced untold numbers of people to do this for every reason but “civil discourse”

This was the actual End of History, we just missed it at the time.

Remember Winnie Greco? The cash-in-the-chip-bag lady? You may recall this longtime Eric Adams adviser is also at the center of fundraisers with the hallmarks of illegal, "straw" donations. These activities were under investigation. One of the big Adams-world mysteries is ... what happened to them?

Timely read!

I Look at This Country and I See a Stranger Masha Gessen examines the signs we aren’t supposed to acknowledge out loud. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

like so many products to come out of silicon valley in the last decade or so, AI is a legal innovation masquerading as a tech innovation. the legal theory seems to be that AI is entitled to everything but liable for nothing.

Aaaand this is why Bondi has dismantled the public corruption unit at DOJ. It’s now pay to play

The visa policy is rolled out with the same competence at drafting as the tariff policy. Tariffs yes, tariffs no, yes, but not now. The uncertainty makes life unbearable for visa-holders. Imagine you‘re visiting your parents, get a panicked email from your boss ordering you back TODAY and then this

Lemme be absolutely clear *every* H-1B visa employee at my (large cap) US firm was summoned back to the office from wherever they were in the world today for this crap. For some, it was utter panic. Appalling.

"Glossy magazines were exempted for many years because the thinking went that...glossy-magazine culture is basically the urban élites talking to themselves, and we don’t really need to get into that space..." @michaelidov.bsky.social w/ the goods on media repression www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Her podcast is good too! www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the...

Registration for the fall Going Solo cohort is open and we're already half full. If you're thinking about a solo journalism career, join us and the alumni who have already launched independent projects after going through the workshop! projectc.biz/going-solo

Not at all kidding, just based on the number of relevant reporters and editors either out of work recently or in precarious situations I bet we could do it quickly for not all that much money

tl:dr - Judge just told Trump "I ain't reading all that shit, go try again." The order starts with the phrase "As every member of the bar of every federal court knows (or is presumed to know)..."

it's also really important to spread the "this is illegal" message as far as you can because the majority of people are not exposed to it! most people do not even know the government is doing the illegal thing it's doing, let alone that it's illegal. when they learn about it they get mad!

I know the case law. I also think the language of “jawboning“ makes this more complicated than it should be. everyone knows what coercion means. threatening to do X or else is coercion. if the government coerces people into shutting up or shutting others up, it’s a free speech problem.

This is the best explanation I’ve seen about what Palantir is. When I wrote Data Cartels, a book about data brokers, a lot of people asked why I didn’t focus on Palantir. The answer is that Palantir isn’t a data broker. Palantir creates ‘extravagant plumbing’ that depends on data brokers’ data.

'Carr’s threats against ABC appear to be “a pretty clear-cut case of jawboning.” Jawboning refers to a type of informal coercion where government officials try to pressure private entities into suppressing or changing speech without using any actual formal legal action' www.wired.com/story/brenda...

i remain resolute in my confidence we will win and it will be because we stuck together. dooming and fatalism is not how any of us will get out of this mess. i’m saying this as a veteran climate journalist who is a trans woman. if i have more hope than you, think of what that says about your view

If you're on #LinkedIn, this is the link for declining their use of your data for training their AI models: www.linkedin.com/mypreference...

that's only half of the story. the other half is that they met *another* group of people that liked them so much that it caused an equal if not greater amount of psychic damage

“The FCC under Brendan Carr uses mergers and business interests of media companies as leverage to extract concessions, extract bribes, and extract censorship.”

The Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into ABC, Sinclair, and the FCC. We will not be intimidated and we will defend the First Amendment.

Story: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/n...

From 2 weeks ago: Get a broadcaster fear-stampede going, and the stampede will do the rest. continuous-wave.beehiiv.com/p/no-way-out

In unrelated hearing on DC with DC leadership, Rep. Ro Khanna is introducing a motion to subpoena FCC Chair Brendan Carr to come testify before Oversight Committee after the Jimmy Kimmel cancellation

Cancel culture is when the fans complain. Fascism is when the government threatens to bankrupt media companies with bogus regulatory action unless they fire the host.

Now seems like a really good time to projectc.biz/backindiemedia

i don't actually want the bottom to fall out because i live here and value stability because its hard to get back when its gone

Nexstar is currently awaiting approval from the FCC and FTC on a $6.2 Billion acquisition of TEGNA.

ah, well

ABC Pulls ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Indefinitely After Host’s Charlie Kirk Comments Via Variety

unjustifiably sinking ships in international waters near your shores is, historically, a top five way to create a world war

So this Trump lawsuit is wacko for many, many reasons, but THIS IS NOT WHAT ACTUAL MALICE MEANS in the legal context. At all.

a detail that appears with fairly regular occurrence in many personal accounts of the Nazi regime is how many individuals died from stroke, heart attacks, and similar health complications because of the stress and despondency that was inflicted on those whose lives were ruined by the regime.

“The latest orders include removing information at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in West Virginia, two people familiar with the matter said, where the abolitionist John Brown led a raid seeking to arm slaves for a revolt.”

Good old days.

SPECIAL REPORT: A large swath of the U.S. currently does not have the basic, ground-level immunity necessary to stop the spread of viruses that had once receded into the past, a six-month NBC News investigation in collaboration with scientists at Stanford University finds.

The corruption here is mindboggling

What did some snarky science writer in London immediately grasp about the problem of free media in 1898 that we still cannot? Getting into that here: continuous-wave.beehiiv.com/p/what-if-we...

New from 404 Media: airlines are selling *5 billion* ticketing records to the government for warrantless searching, per new docs we obtained. ARC is a data broker owned by United, American, Delta, etc. Then sells peoples' travel info to ICE, Secret Service, FBI etc www.404media.co/airlines-sel...

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty... The free speech crusade will continue until complete conformity and submission are achieved.

Oh great, Belarus is our buddy now. euromaidanpress.com/2025/09/11/u...