@timkarr.bsky.social
A crash-scene investigation at the crossroads of new media & public policy. Against media concentration; for robust local journalism & digital democracy. Still attempting to master the cold take. www.freepress.net - This Free Press is not for sale.
My amazing new @freepress.bsky.social colleague Cristina Escobar makes her Pressing Issues debut with this report on the politics and promise of Sundance. Trust me, this is a great read. Subscribe already! pressingissues.org/5-things-i-l...
30.01.2026 19:26 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort have been arrested for reporting the news.
This is a brazen, unconstitutional overreach. We demand that Congress act immediately to check the executive branch’s unhinged abuse of power.
The strongest "evidence" that Fox/DOJ can cite here is that Lemon entered the church shortly before the protesters did.
Of course, that's common when a journalist has a camera and knows something is about to happen.
It isn't a conspiracy to commit a crime, unless you see journalism as a crime.
Don Lemon's arrest fits an ongoing pattern of assault on First Amendment freedoms, writes @juliorvarela.com.
"The Trump administration will do anything it can to discredit and racialize protest... calling protesters 'agitators & insurrectionists',” while criminalizing reporters who cover ICE.
Don Lemon is not the only reporter who was arrested by federal agents overnight — local independent journalist Georgia Fort just went live on FB to say federal agents were also at her door to take her into custody over her protest coverage in Minneapolis.
30.01.2026 13:33 — 👍 4909 🔁 2140 💬 33 📌 114
"X has created a situation where payment processors are hugely disincentivized to take the law seriously," writes Lopatto. "Because any state that files suit against processors over X is likely to be attacked by Musk for 'censoring' X’s right-wing base."
Corporate social responsibility is a myth.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate estimates that Elon Musk's Grok produced 23,000 sexualized images of children in an 11-day span.
Yet @lopatto.bsky.social of @theverge.com finds the nation's largest payment processors still allowing users to pay for this CSAM generator, despite prohibitions.
A media exec tells @brianstelter.bsky.social that Democratic Party supporter Barry Diller's bid to take over CNN is a non-starter because "everybody understands that M&A goes through the Oval Office right now."
view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/176...
“There has been a dramatic shift in the way Apple operates worldwide," one Apple employee told The Intercept's @sambiddle.com.
"Before they would focus on quality and design and doing the right thing, and now they’re just getting things out quickly and pandering to fascists."
I'll give $20 to the first reporter who asks Cook on camera if he's a fascist.
And if his answer is no: "How then do you explain your near total capitulation to a bigoted and corrupt authoritarian regime over the past year?"
Meanwhile @juddlegum.bsky.social and crew document the near total Trump-u-flection of Silicon Valley's top CEOs including the Ellisons of TikTok US, Zuckerberg (Meta), Google, and, of course, Apple.
They're unified in their cowardice and greed.
popular.info/p/social-med...
“This isn’t leadership. This is an absence of leadership,” an Apple employee said about CEO Tim Cook's latest capitulation: Attending a White House screening of Bezos-funded "Melania" on the night of Pretti's murder.
Read @theintercept.com on the staff rebellion at Apple:
...and a person familiar with the Melania production told @rollingstone.com that some two-thirds of the crew members who worked on the film requested not to have their names formally mentioned in the credits.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
“Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release ," said the S. African distributor.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/w...
"As long as Miller is still driving the agenda, the agenda is going to be ethnic cleansing," @adamserwer.bsky.social tells @gregsargent.bsky.social in a TNR interview.
Removing Boningo isn't enough; the solidarity shown by Minneapolis protesters is a model for other communities under ICE assault.
Trickle treats!
28.01.2026 16:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0As a former Lifeline recipient, I condemn this cynical move from the FCC Chair.
As Americans struggle to make ends meet, Carr proves once again that he cares more about the President’s culture wars than lowering costs for consumers.
The poor will pay the price, no matter their race or ethnicity.
"I see why her bosses at Paramount were so unconcerned with her lack of TV news experience," @edeggans.bsky.social writes about Bari Weiss over at cesspool.
"Seems like her plan is to replace the journalists w/podcasters/influencers."
"Soft."
Brits do have a way with words that is simultaneously subtle and devastating.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Friend and colleague @juliorvarela.com talks to independent reporter @nickvalencianews.bsky.social about his harrowing experiences as one of the first reporters on the scene following Alex Pretti's murder by ICE agents.
Gut wrenching.
Read it at Pressing Issues:
The movie "Melania" sold only one ticket — that's right, just one — to its London premiere.
Makes sense since it's more of a $40 million bribe (paid from Bezos to the Trumps) than a film of any actual cinematic worth.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Both-sides journalism isn't the answer when one side uses relentless lying as part of a strategy of censorship & control.
Making that strategy apparent to the public should be a top priority of any political news outlet worth its salt.
If only billionaire owners would get out of the way. //ends
"With what amounts to civil war raging in the United States, we desperately need clear, fearless truth-telling that doesn’t pull its punches and doesn’t hand a megaphone to lies and propaganda in the name of supposed fairness," writes @sulliview.bsky.social...
27.01.2026 18:01 — 👍 37 🔁 10 💬 2 📌 1... Unfortunately, many in the media would rather report on the official view than let us in on the truth as shown by brave people putting their own lives on the line to witness and document events first hand.
27.01.2026 17:58 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0"Maybe that explains why Alex Pretti really was a threat. Because he was brandishing a weapon. A hand held ... weapon of mass illumination," Stewart says.
"Because there's nothing more dangerous to a regime predicated on lies than witnesses who capture the truth."
"To add insult to industry is the [administration's] denial of the reality we all witnessed," says Jon Stewart.
"They're lying," he adds. "We saw it. And that's how brazenly they lie when they know we've seen the truth ... Imagine how they lie when there's no evidence to contradict them."
Thanks Brian - is there a link to the entire interview at CNN?
27.01.2026 17:06 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0TikTok's new American business, led by a Trump-approved group of mainly US investors, is off to an inauspicious start.
27.01.2026 16:26 — 👍 208 🔁 70 💬 28 📌 12
Free Press colleague @ruddock.bsky.social on the need to immediately defund ICE before it kills more innocent people and detains more five-year-olds, while surveilling the rest of us for potential thought crimes.
Congress must not pass a $64B funding package:
www.facebook.com/reel/2716967...
The lying is the story. Billionaire media seem more intent on enabling the lies than holding power to account.
We need to examine this failure & understand how such ownership structures make it next to impossible for media giants to fulfill the social compact embodied in the notion of a free press.
