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This has not been a good week for press freedom, but it’s been a great one for vendors that provide tele-townhall services to Republicans. After receiving serious, vocal blowback over the past week from constituents angry about Trump and Musk’s federal government takeover, House Republican leaders are telling their members to avoid town halls altogether or instead “do tele-town halls or at least vet attendees to avoid scenes that become viral clips.” So much for responsive representation!
Videos of people booing congressmembers — or even being forcibly removed from public meetings — spread online and over cable news these past few days and gave heart to Democrats and others opposed to the Trump/Musk alliance. Naturally, “Republican leadership is eager to end those types of viral moments, which can spread among districts and inspire voters in battleground areas.” More broadly, “they also want to end the narrative about public blowback.”
Avoiding constituents is ONE way to try to stop the kind of social-media feedback loop that some Trump opponents like Chris Murphy have also been taking advantage of, in which a video or a story in one medium jumps into others, reaching a much wider audience than the original piece would have on its own. But I wonder how long they can hide from the people who’ll be voting whether or not to reelect them in two years? When Democrats tried to dodge Tea Party activists in the 2010 election cycle, it did not go well for them. We shall see what happens as more of the effects of Republican budget cuts and federal worker firings trickle down into the lives of everyday people.
As for press freedom, today’s announcement that the Washington Post editorial page will now swing right is an ominous sign, as is Trump White House’s takeover of the process that determines which news outlets will get to ask questions when the president or his spokespeople are at the podium. Our democratically elected leader would also like to avoid inconvenient questions, particularly ones offered in public settings! Meanwhile, MSNBC has cut its only primetime weekday hosts of color, along with many of the day-to-day producers, editors and others that help put the network’s shows together. All around, a frightening erosion of our ability to challenge the people in power today.
Stories to Put It All into Context
- The oligarchs are not here to save us: Jeff Bezos overhauls Washington Post opinion section, says it will focus on ‘personal liberties and free markets’ [NBC]
- Robert Reich: “When billionaires take control of our communication channels, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for billionaire babble… When they speak of “freedom,” what they actually seek is freedom from accountability.”
- Outcry as White House starts dictating which journalists can access Trump [The Guardian]
- “The response to Trump and Musk from every newsroom in the country should be to flood the zone with truth.” [NY Mag]
- There’s Something More Nefarious Lurking Under the Gulf of America. “When the government does it, it’s real censorship.” [Slate]
- Farmers sue USDA after agency deletes climate change data [WaPo]
- DOGE’s grab of personal data stokes privacy and security fears: “Twenty-one staffers of the U.S. DOGE Service announced their resignations Tuesday citing, among other worries, ‘mishandling sensitive data.” [WaPo]
- What do advocacy groups do when there’s no advocacy to do? [Bright+3] .C.f. The End of Political Advocacy?
- Ctrl Alt Right Delete: An update on the grassroots campaign to Make Tesla Toxic
- How Downballot Republicans Won Out With Small-Dollar Donors, and The Fight For Trump’s Donors Is On [C&E]
- Angry Democratic donors turn off the flow of money, at least for now [The Hill]
- UK users are losing a key Apple security feature, raising questions about the future of privacy, U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts [CNN, WaPo]
- On highlighting people hurt by Trump’s policies: “When you’re able to put a face to a story, then people have much stronger feelings on it when they realize it’s their friends and neighbors being fired,” said C.J. Warnke, communications director for House Majority PAC…. “We need to amplify these stories and make these cuts real for people.” [Politico] C.f. Make It Visceral, Make It Real: We Need Stories, Not Sound Bites
- How the US AID takeover unfolded: “But if you step back for a moment, what’s happened at USAID over the past couple of weeks is unfathomable. A $50 billion agency — funded by taxpayers, empowered by Congress and employing something like 11,000 people around the world — is now tightly controlled by a handful of 20-something software engineers who have never worked a day in government. They disregard promises from the American secretary of state while agonized policy experts stand by helplessly.” [WaPo]
- And the racist kids who made it happen: “Is it crazy to say that final word on certain U.S. government activities might fall not to the president or secretary of state, but to near-teenagers who believe they are part of a sort of holy cause of restoring white men to their proper place of dominion over the world?” [Slate]
- Incoming FBI deputy director Dan Bongino is still podcasting, still “hawking ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.”
- And finally, HUD TVs Hacked to Play Video of Trump Kissing Musk’s Feet, as
“On Monday morning, TV sets at the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development played the seemingly AI-generated video on loop, along with the words ‘LONG LIVE THE REAL KING.'” [NY Mag, Wired]
– cpd
Image by Maher Ahtsham from Pixabay