Faith Rogow

Looks like we'll have to create our own No Kings celebrations of the nation's 250th, because the official ones will be about celebrating Trump and white christian nationalism, not democracy, equality, liberty, unity or hope. Sad.

🍎 📚 🗺️ #AcademicSky #SSChat

Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell Somewhat devastating news today from CIA: One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. There's not even a hint as to why they decided …

World FactBook has been taken offline. No doubt the DOGE boys think we can all just ask AI or Grokipedia whatever we or our students might need to know, because who needs reliable info anyway... 😒
simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

#SSChat #AcademicSky 🗺️🗃️🍎📚

Jeff Bezos' wedding last summer cost somewhere around $50M. That, alone, could have saved all 300 positions cut today at The Washington Post for a year.

Of course, he wouldn't have to choose. He could do both because he's worth $250B, which is nearly the GDP of New Zealand.

Is Chris Cillizza a Journalist? If he doesn't think Don Lemon is a journalist, what is he?

According to the rules set by award-winning expert Chris Cillizza, the following ppl are now eliminated from being considered journalists:

Ida B. Wells (because of her anti-lynching "activism")
Frederick Douglass (bc of his "partisan" views on slavery)
And, now, Don Lemon

I'm going to be participating in a online panel with Harvard's Shorenstein Center, Reporting on Power and Policy, at 1PM Eastern today. I will be on with fellow 2025 Nylan Prize winner, Samantha Maldonado, a senior reporter for THE CITY.

You can tune in here: harvard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Trump Demands $10 Billion From Taxpayers For Leaked Tax Returns; His Own Lawyers Get To Decide What He Gets

Back in May, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered what might be the single most audacious statement of the Trump era—and that's saying something: I think everybody - the…

Hey, pals, this study is headed by Lisa Littman, noted transphobe and pseudoscientist. She's on the advisory board for the genocidal anti-trans group GENSPECT.

Do not, under any circumstance, participate in this junk study.

I hope anyone who shares this w/ kids also engages them in analyzing the images. If the aliens have essentially the same jobs, why do they wear very different shoes? Why the specific color coding of their clothing? What messages are conveyed by each character's body language? etc. 🍎📚 #MediaLiteracy

This is on track to fill by the end of the week but there are still spots left!

How legacy media fell for Trump’s fake “pivot” in Minnesota No, Trump did not "change course."

1. Many large media outlets are reporting that Trump "pivoted" his strategy in Minnesota and has "changed course."

This is what the White House WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE

The only problem is it is not true

This is the best. Got students who are freaking out, distracted, upset? Take two minutes to watch with them this video of what democracy looks like in MPL. Breathe. Then watch again with everyone up and dancing. 🍎📚 🗺️ #TLSky #AcademicSky #Uplift

Democratic members of Congress are not bound by oaths to protect sources/congregants/patients like journalists, priests, and doctors are.

If your GOP colleagues are saying privately that they decry what ICE or Trump is doing, time to name names.

The President is actively working to dismantle the department of ed.

Yes, ICE can be dismantled.

Refuse to pass a budget that includes anything but staffing border crossings. Zero out the line item for Trump's ICE. Full stop. (I'm a constituent - start counting down your days in office if you can't find a better way to stand up to this lethal lawlessness than a post on BlueSky)

How quaint. Instead of improving their products to meet students' needs, Open AI just keeps making it harder to teach media & AI literacy. And without that literacy, no student should be using AI for anything.

Best response rn? Regulate platforms & reject using those that continue to foster abuse AND teach media lit EVERYWHERE with a focus on critical thinking skills & habits. If we only amplify alarmism about media we erode trust w/out offering benefits to students. 2/2

AI-Powered Disinformation Swarms Are Coming for Democracy Advances in artificial intelligence are creating a perfect storm for those seeking to spread disinformation at unprecedented speed and scale. And it’s virtually impossible to detect.

David Gilbert's @wired.com warning of what's coming explains why it's a waste of valuable class time to teach students to spot fakes by looking for missing or added fingers or limbs or similar artifacts of AI distortion. Fakes are getting better & platforms are incentivized to feature them. 🍎📚🧪🗺️ 1/2

More States Are Pairing Cellphone Bans With Media Literacy Instruction Students need to develop the skills to critically analyze the content they view on their phones.

Baby steps, but stuff is happening. Don't give up.

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months

1. ICE has STOPPED PAYING for medical treatment for its 73,000 detainees

ICE has not paid its bills to 3rd party providers since OCTOBER and the situation will likely persist for MONTHS, a Popular Information investigation reveals

Meanwhile, critically ill ICE detainees are not receiving care

🧵

Hey Jersey: @govmurphy.bsky.social has til Tuesday noon to sign the Immigrant Protection Package into law. He says he's still undecided. Please text 732 605 5455 or call 609 292 6000 (and wait thru the muzak).
In my call, I invoked Murphy's friend Bruce Springsteen:

Welcome to Sensemaking Distortion A blog about how our ability make sense of everything is profoundly distorted by digital and social media.

I've been doing a soft launch of my new Substack, Sensemaking Distortion, a blog about how our ability to make sense of the world around us is being profoundly distorted by digital and social media. I just published the Welcome post this morning. open.substack.com/pub/katestar...

"Sensemaking" is at the core of media literacy education and I know a lot of media literacy educators who are going to really appreciate having this new resource from someone with your depth of knowledge and experience. Thanks for creating it! 🍎📚

Hebrew and English graphic of quote from Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers 2:5 - "In a place where no one is acting with decency, be the decent one." B'makom sheh'eyn anahsheem, heeshtadeyl l'heeyote eesh.

Remember that this latest MAGA administration officially began on MLK Day. Let King's legacy be the one that overshadows Trump and propels us forward.

Ads Are Coming to ChatGPT. Here’s How They’ll Work OpenAI says ads will not influence ChatGPT’s responses, and that it won’t sell user data to advertisers.

Don't worry about ads coming to ChatGPT. OpenAI assures us that ads will not influence the responses that the AI provides.
My question? What possible reason would we have to believe the people who think it's ok to release a chatbot that gives dangerous & false advice to kids? 🍎 📚

Flashbangs burn hotter then lava.

They've caused serious burns, severed hands, and even killed.

*That's* what ICE just tossed into a car full of kids.

Here's our investigation from 2015, by @juliaangwin.com:

www.propublica.org/article/flas...

About 18 months ago I sent this letter, along with a copy of my book, to a number of MPs and peers, including Wes Streeting. I never got a response (which to be fair was my baseline expectation), but it’s still disheartening to see today’s news about Haidt’s invitation to speak to policymakers.

Reminder: Haidt is not actually an "expert" in this field and actual experts have called out that he's just wrong about almost everything.

www.techdirt.com/2025/09/10/e...

#45. The Importance of Critical Analyses in Examining Social Science Evidence Comments on Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation

.@rkiouak.com You might want to read Peter Gray (Haidt's friend - the co-founded Let Grow): petergray.substack.com/p/45-the-imp... on how Haidt cherry picks evidence. Gray (& other major scholars) document that the mental health decline predates the intro of the iPhone by decades.