Nora Benavidez

Media Capitulation Index A new tool from Free Press that you should know about

New from me: This week @freepress.bsky.social launched a Media Capitulation Index. I cover what it is, why it matters, and how we can use it to organize. ctrlaltrightdelete.substack.com/p/media-capi...

BREAKING: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is looking into shutting down due to July's funding cuts from Congress at Trump's urging. Authoritarianism grows in the absence of strong, independent media. If you want to rip the heart out of a democracy, go after the facts.

BREAKING: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is looking into shutting down due to July's funding cuts from Congress at Trump's urging. Authoritarianism grows in the absence of strong, independent media. If you want to rip the heart out of a democracy, go after the facts.

Five Questions About Detained Journalist Mario Guevara He is the only U.S.-based journalist being held by ICE.

New Pressing Issues is out! @julito77.bsky.social and @attorneynora.bsky.social talk about why Mario Guevara - the Atlanta journalist being unjustly held by ICE - should matter to all of us. pressingissues.org/five-questio...

Please read and subscribe!

Five Questions About Detained Journalist Mario Guevara He is the only U.S.-based journalist being held by ICE.

Here is my Pressing Issues debut story, where I check in with @attorneynora.bsky.social about the #MarioGuevara case.

Five Questions About Detained Journalist Mario Guevara

Hope you take the time to read and also subscribe to PressingIssues.org!

There's Now a Report Card for Media Capitulation, and It's Full of Chickens Free Press mapped out the ownership, donations, and compromises behind 35 major media companies. The results aren't pretty.

The Media Capitulation Index reveals just how many news organizations are trading independence for access. www.readtpa.com/p/theres-now...

Organizing Against Authoritarianism Toolkit Table of Contents Introduction: Fighting Authoritarianism ………………………………….……………………….……………………………… 3 Part I: Understanding the Threats Facing Our Communities ……………………………………………………….. 5 Know your rights a...

Our new toolkit "Organizing Against Authoritarianism"! I am so proud of this living, breathing guide, led by @freepress.bsky.social's @rlivier.bsky.social for communities to understand their constitutional rights, to organize on & offline, w/ trusted resources: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Kids to be blocked from YouTube under Australia's social media ban "YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens — it's not social media," a YouTube spokesperson said.

This just feels like the wrong direction. Barbra Streisand effect and all. Not to mention, kids range in maturity and will inevitably work around these bans to access sites/platforms off limits. www.1news.co.nz/2025/07/30/k...

Super interesting. Would love to look at this. But it's really a different beast.

Hundreds of registered data brokers ignore user requests around personal data Researchers in California contacted data brokers in their state to exercise their rights under the California Privacy Protection Act. Many didn’t reply, while others threw up barriers.

This is why we need strong digital civil rights & privacy laws. It’s also why we need limits on govt purchase of our data from data brokers. Of 543 companies contacted, 40% failed to respond in any way, showing “rampant non-compliance” among registered data brokers. cyberscoop.com/data-brokers...

It’s a blog! A newsletter! A substack! A tumblr! I really loved those early tumblr days.

Wouldn't it be great if a major media company actually covered this horrific prevalence of corporate media capitulating to Donald Trump? Highly unlikely. But prove me wrong y'all NYT, WaPo, WSJ, CNN, NBC, CBS, etc.

So sad. We were Free Press long before her. We're here for justice, truth, anti-censorship, anti-neoliberal takeover wrapped in freedom speak: freepress.net

Welcome to Pressing Issues This is Pressing Issues — the new twice-weekly Free Press newsletter with ideas and analysis about everything happening at the intersection of media, technology and democracy.

In other news, we @freepress.bsky.social launched a blog. We're feeling very Y2K & I'm very here for it. Sign up for updates -- you'll get to see some friendlies in your inbox like @julito77.bsky.social, @notaaroncraig.bsky.social, sometimes even me. pressingissues.org/welcome-to-p...

Home Media and technology are essential to our democracy. We fight to ensure they’re used for justice.

No! We are not THE Free Press. Just Free Press, the nonprofit nonpartisan group. We are anti-censorship, anti-authoritarian, anti-neoliberal takeover. We're fighting for a media and tech system that builds up people's dignity and agency to access information: freepress.net

Tough to find a major media org who isn't capitulating to Trump.

An utterly damning analysis.

Who Owns the Media Who owns the 35 most powerful media companies in America? Learn how these giants came to dominate the U.S. media landscape through mergers, acquisition and manipulation. Free Press rates their ability...

I am honored to announce the release of groundbreaking @freepress.bsky.social research & analysis with our inaugural "Media Capitulation Index" which examines how major corporate media companies are bending the knee to Trump & those in power. Check out the rankings & @timkarr.bsky.social analysis:

Free Press ‘Media Capitulation Index’ Reveals How the Nation’s Biggest Media Companies Are Responding to Trump The sweeping investigation into the 35 largest American media conglomerates finds many are failing to defend democracy and a free press against authoritarian threats.

"Media capitulation is a slippery slope. Once owners compromise their companies’ editorial independence — once they step across the line into compliance — the temptation to cave further to official pressure grows even stronger."

My statement at launch of the Media Capitulation Index...

Explained: A Georgia-based, Spanish-language reporter's ICE detention — and what comes next Concerns are growing among press freedom and civil rights advocates over the case of a Spanish-language journalist fighting deportation from Georgia.

"Companies like CBS are discontinuing programming like the Stephen Colbert show because he spoke critically of the way CBS capitulated to Donald Trump. Guevara's case feels emblematic of the disturbing path that the United States is on." - @attorneynora.bsky.social

www.wabe.org/explained-a-...

Atrocious to wrap this effort as a free speech campaign.

YouTube video by Free Press Free Press Condemns ICE Detention of Journalist Mario Guevara

For my full remarks on behalf of @freepress.bsky.social and Georgia First Amendment Foundation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Avf...

Benavidez explained: “We’re living in a climate of fear and retribution. … Our community ties are weakening, truth is undermined as the bedrock of our democracy, and I believe that Mr. Guevara’s case is really just the tip of the spear.”

“Even in our corporate media realm, companies like CBS are discontinuing programming like the @colbertlateshow.bsky.social show, because he spoke critically of the way CBS capitulated to Donald Trump,” Benavidez said.

For Nora Benavidez, Free Press senior counsel & GA First Amendment Fdn board member, Guevara’s case “feels emblematic of the disturbing path the U.S. is on” by detaining people like Mahmoud Khalil, disallowing journalists from the White House & clawing back millions of dollars from public media.

Free Press, Georgia First Amendment Foundation, ACLU of Georgia, Committee to Protect Journalists, state legislators and Guevara’s two adult children and lawyers came together to reaffirm calls for his release from immigration detention, most of which he’s allegedly spent in isolation.

Explained: A Georgia-based, Spanish-language reporter's ICE detention — and what comes next Concerns are growing among press freedom and civil rights advocates over the case of a Spanish-language journalist fighting deportation from Georgia.

There's so much work to do in the fight for our future & collective freedom -- incl. Mario Guevara, detained going on 7 wks, despite court order for bond release, no criminal charges, w/ work visa. Amid flurry of fascist news, I celebrate our coalition for his release: www.wabe.org/explained-a-...

The climate that allows or normalizes political violence is just a precursor to full-blown authoritarian takeover.

YouTube video by Free Press Free Press Condemns ICE Detention of Journalist Mario Guevara

It was an honor to host this press conference w/ Mario Guevara’s legal team, @freepress.bsky.social @pressfreedom.bsky.social @joshforgeorgia.bsky.social @aclu.org of GA. My remarks affirm urgency for release of Atlanta-based journalist Mario Guevara from ICE custody. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Avf...

Free Press Condemns ICE Detention of Journalist Mario Guevara Mario Guevara is likely not the last journalist we will see arrested, detained and targeted for his work in the Trump era.

There are no criminal charges against journalist Mario Guevara — yet he remains in ICE detention. In the Trump era, any of us could be next.

More here: https://www.freepress.net/blog/ice-detention-journalist-mario-guevara-attack-freedom-of-speech