John,
Last night, Rachel Maddow opened her show with a blunt warning:
Donald Trump is using the power of government to dismantle independent media before our eyes.
By weaponizing government power and legal attacks, Trump is following the authoritarian playbook of Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán—a strategy designed to attack fact-based journalism, prop up right-wing propaganda, and silence accountability.
In her monologue, Maddow detailed a series of alarming attacks on independent media—all in just the past few days:
- A Trump-aligned county executive in Long Island—who recently formed his own local militia—stripped legally required public notices from Newsday (the local paper of record) and handed them to a right-wing tabloid that isn’t even based in the community.
- Trump’s FCC is investigating how NPR and PBS disclose their sponsors—not just to harass them, but to choke off their most important source of funding.
- The Pete Hegseth-led Defense Department revoked office space from NBC, The New York Times, and other major outlets, limiting their ability to report on the military.
Maddow warns this isn’t just hostility toward the press—it’s a coordinated strategy to weaken, defund, and dismantle independent journalism so that right-wing propaganda is all that’s left.
John, that’s why your support for COURIER is so important right now.
While Trump attacks real journalism, we’re expanding—reaching millions of Americans with fact-based reporting in the communities and online spaces that decide our elections.
Thank you,
The COURIER Team