Lindsey Meeks

A Critical Crossroads for Free Speech and Local News Local news and freedom of speech across the country are under threat. Due to federal funding cuts, NPR and PBS affiliates of all sizes have announced that they will need to lay off staff, reduce progr...

Attacks on press freedom are devastating newsrooms and leaving communities without reliable local news.

Join @freepress.bsky.social on 11/13 for a conversation with FCC Commissioner @agomezfcc.bsky.social about the barriers to free speech and local news NJ residents are facing.

buff.ly/3njhEfG

Kaohly Her will be the first woman and first AAPI woman mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Rehmet, Wambsganss head to runoff in Senate special election With the GOP vote fractured between Wambsganss and another Republican, Rehmet led the three-person contest for the red-leaning district.

Democrat Taylor Rehmet and Republican Leigh Wambsganss are headed to a runoff in the special election for the North Texas Senate seat vacated by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock.

Texas voters shot down property tax increases this week Even voters in Austin, one of the state’s most liberal cities, shot down a measure to raise property taxes.

Voters across Texas shot down bids by school districts and cities to increase funds to hire teachers and police officers, pave roads and keep schools humming.

More than half of those measures failed in Tuesday’s elections, according to a Tribune analysis.

My University Just Taught Extremists How to Eliminate Academic Programs They Don't Like Texas Christian University handed its power to the people working hardest to dismantle learning itself.

“There’s a particular kind of despair that comes from watching an institution abandon its principles in real time…What’s the political cost of supporting our own people versus the cost of quietly surrendering?” Powerful words from a TCU colleague. www.texasobserver.org/tcu-eliminat...

Pivots, Trolls, and Blog Rolls Reflections on 25 years of digital media.

These are all so good. talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25

Featuring a quote from @ashleyhinck.bsky.social!

And here's the paper, led by the incredible Silvia Mari, in which we find that stronger beliefs in traditional gender roles is associated with less voting intention across 18 countries.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.

And in that pause between pitch and contact - longer than logic, shorter than hope - we remembered why baseball existed long before we judged a sport's value by viral moments and betting apps. It is the romance of failure. The mortal beauty of trying and missing seven times out of 10 and still being considered great. It is the only sport where patience is a weapon, and panic the surest death. You cannot simply run out the clock in baseball; you must face it, pitch by terrifying pitch, until it finally releases you.

Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...

Meet the Billionaire Trying to Save College Football From Itself

The national story: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/b...

The local impact: www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-c...

On the one hand, glad they have concrete plans for next episode. On the other, that is so long! 😞

How Type 1 Diabetes Cases Are Rising across the Globe This autoimmune disease impacts millions of people worldwide, with some underserved communities bearing the brunt

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

SUCH SUCH SUCH a thing - says parent who is haunted by this daily

Position: Newsletter intern, January to June 2026 - The News Literacy Project We are seeking a Newsletter Intern who can help monitor trending news literacy topics and create newsletter content in support of our work teaching young people how to be savvier consumers of informat...

📢 Students: NLP is looking for a Newsletter Intern for the spring semester!

👀 In 15-20 hours per week, the person in this position will
directly impact many thousands of educators & hundreds of thousands of students across the U.S.

🔗 Learn more / apply: go.newslit.org/NewsletterIn...

#Internship

How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught

"Social studies teachers typically receive much less training from their school districts than teachers of English and math, the subjects covered by state tests. As a result, some teachers may have had little guidance on how to tackle controversial topics." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/u...

Pleased to share that the Kennedy School has been authorized to conduct a faculty search in American politics

This is as an extraordinary opportunity for us - please share widely with your networks and consider applying

academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15418

State institutions in Texas are being forced to retreat, but TCU, as a private university, isn’t. So it’s sad to see admins undoing years of faculty work that went into building a more inclusive academic community.

Paramount Mulls Next Move After Second Bid For Warner Bros Discovery Is Rejected Paramount Skydance is mulling its next move after having its acquisition offer for Warner Bros. Discovery rebuffed for the second time.

It's my least favorite day of lecture prep: Trying to figure out who owns what for my lecture on media consolidation.

But at least this year the lecture will be *very* timely: deadline.com/2025/10/para...

TCU to end stand-alone departments focused on women and gender, race and ethnic studies Officials said a merger into the English department better uses resources. Faculty fear it was politically motivated, which TCU denies.

To say I’m disappointed would be a major understatement.

Could also be interesting to see how it mixes with if you have fanship with a candidate. So beyond being a supporter, do you have an affective attachment with them, prompting maybe more defense. Lots of legs. Sign me up!

If personalization enables parasocial relationships to form, which often include a sense of identification with the persona, then attacks on the persona could trigger a vicarious identity threat and defense mechanism.

🚨 New LSE job in political science 🚨

We're looking for a *Full or Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy* to join the LSE School of Public Policy

Please share!

jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

🎉 New to PolComm? Join our Welcome Webinar!

🗓️ Monday, Oct 27
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💻 Zoom: arizona.zoom.us/j/84832196943

Meet the PolComm Division’s Executive Committee and get your last-minute questions answered!

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All but 2 Universities Decline a Trump Offer of Preferential Funding

"Only one, the University of Texas, suggested it might be open to signing on quickly." Seeing my alma mater cater to demands that chip away at academic freedom is disheartening. You can't have a core value of "Freedom—To seek the truth and express it" and sign this. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/u...

Texas trans students fear identity erasure at college Once considered a safe haven to explore identity, Texas campuses are invalidating and alienating trans people, students say.

The Tribune spoke to more than a dozen transgender and nonbinary Texas students about how their lives on campuses have changed in recent years.

Many said state and federal policies have emboldened their peers to disregard their gender identities, and administrators to slash campus support services.

A Fox News Reporter Lied on Me But I Kept the Receipts This Substack is reader-supported.

For those of you who don’t do public scholarship, an important read on the Fox News smear machine. I was also named in this piece Dr. Patton references, which is why my Bluesky engagement settings have been locked down. That’s the one thing I’d add. These pieces are designed to unleash trolls.

Warner Bros. Discovery Says It Is Considering a Sale

Warner Bros. Discovery Says It Is Considering a Sale www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/b...