- Trump and Tech
- Deepseek Turns the Tables
- Mindblowing Capitulation at Public TV Station
- Covering the Kakocracy
- TikTok Takes
- Political Cartoonists’ Dilemma
- Exiting Stage Left
- Information Wants to Get Out
- They Say AI, We Say Fight Back
- A Call to Media Organizations
Trump and Tech
By Cédric Durand
New Left Review
Only a few years ago, the vast majority of tech billionaires were outspoken supporters of Biden and the Democrats. The crucial question concerns the nature of this realignment: is it a simple opportunistic turnaround, within the same systemic parameters? Or is this a moment of rupture worthy of being called a great event in history?
Deepseek Turns the Tables
Mindblowing Capitulation at Public TV Station
By Andrew Lapin
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A rabbi in South Carolina used the occasion of a Holocaust memorial ceremony to draw parallels to modern-day federal and state policies on refugees, LGBTQ issues and book bans — only to have his speech cut out of the state public television station’s archived video of the event. The decision to pull the segment came from the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust, not the government.
Covering the Kakocracy
By Dan Froomkin
Press Watch
Rather than speaking truth to power, the MSM have become stenographers with amnesia, hiding the truth through the use of anodyne adjectives, convoluted phrasing and buried leads. In some cases they have been explicitly muzzled -- told by their bosses to “be forward-thinking and to avoid pre-judging Trump,” as CNN chief Mark Thompson told his staff.
TikTok Takes
Political Cartoonists’ Dilemma
By Zach Rabiroff
The Comics Journal
It would be nice to think that our political cartoons can make a difference: that perhaps they can provide some measure of, if not comfort to the afflicted, then at least an assurance that they are not insane to believe in the affliction. But even if they do not, they – all of our jokes – are acts of affirmation of the world for its own sake.
Exiting Stage Left
Information Wants to Get Out
By Dan Sinker
Unfinished Business
We need to build new things in new ways independent of the oligarchs that now control the government after already controlling much of our lives. That means moving away from the platforms that have dominated the way we’ve connected, collaborated, and disseminated information for the last couple decades.
They Say AI, We Say Fight Back
A Call to Media Organizations
By Maya Schenwar, Negin Owliaei and Ziggy West Jeffery
Truthout
Throughout the first Trump campaign and presidency, corporate newsrooms acted as if they were dinghies buoyed along a naturally occurring wave to the right. When these outlets did choose to take a stand, it was often around attacks on a free press — which mainstream media depicted as a distinct issue, rather than recognizing its connections with attacks on oppressed communities.
