Alexander Howard

As a longtime member of the US media & nonpartisan good governance advocate, I feel my definition is better than most, as is my understanding of the work & what it requires.

It has become much harder to be nonpartisan in an era when a party has turned against democracy & embraced a corrupt leader.

*With LIES, not, load.

While Trump posts loads of stuff online, it’s not what I meant to say. Sigh.

How does that invalidate her insight or analysis on this count?

Is her insight about news media & authoritarian regimes less true or accurate today because of what she advocated for in 2002?

If “both sides” aren’t equally guilty of illiberalism or corruption or mendacity, how can an advocate ethically criticize both equally?

Why the Trump White House is neither the most transparent nor most accessible ever 188 years ago, President Andrew Jackson had a 1,400-pound block of cheddar cheese brought to the foyer of the White House and opened the People’s House to thousands of Americans to talk with him an…

What we don’t know about Trump’s White House: how many staff signed (unconstitutional) non-disclosure agreements, or how many staff use messaging apps without archiving.

His secrecy about his health, finances, corruption, and foreign entanglements also speak for themselves.

White House tweet with a Pinocchio emoji over Trump’s head, with the false claim that he is the most transparent president ever

Don’t parrot propaganda: President Donald J. Trump can’t be the “most transparent President in history” because he doesn’t disclose tax returns — unlike every President since Nixon — and The White House doesn’t post visitor logs.
e-pluribusunum.org/2025/04/30/w...

French toast with Maine maple syrup, vanilla, nutmeg, & fresh wild blueberries & whipped cream.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When life gives you stale blueberry-raspberry-lemonade bread, teach your children how to make French toast.

(Maine maple syrup, vanilla, nutmeg, & fresh wild blueberries will improve it, along with Hannaford’s whipped cream.)

I disagree. Data is always contested by those who wish to create alternative facts or deny reality.
Nonpartisan means not taking the side of any political party, not avoiding criticizing politicians or officials who seek to censor, distort, or destroy official stats or the data they are drawn from.

Thank you.

Now that NPR & PBS have been defunded by Republicans in Congress — despite bending over backwards not to accurately describe a corrupt demagogue who incited insurrection with load after his auto-coup failed to avoid bad faith accusations of bias — I’m watching to see if their reporting sharpens.

This has led to normalizing or softening accurate journalism to make it more palatable.

Unfortunately, it’s a flaw in NPR’s political reporting, as with mainstream news organizations that view themselves as neutral, objective observers who bear witness to how power is gained, lost, used, & abused.

Trump’s lies, corruption, illiberalism, & (yes) fascism posed huge challenge for nonpartisan good governance advocates (like me): accurately reporting what he’s done & what it means for our democracy sounds partisan to Republicans, who insist “both sides” do it & false equivalences must be made.

One is late when other outlets did it before they did.

The intent & the future are harder to ascribe without direct knowledge from sources.

What can be said with clarity is that they’re applied the frame now, & it is good.
It does not absolve them of choices they have made previously, or outcomes.

I don’t know @smerconish.bsky.social, but that representation seems somewhat unfair & unbalanced.

For my part, it’s seems fair to criticize both the & and the press for what we read, watch, amplify, subscribe to, or pay attention to over time.

We are all responsible for being active citizens.

Independent, nonpartisan media like @pbsnews.org have been careful not to “take sides” between parties — but they must remain on the side of facts, wherever they lead.

If a major political party turns against democracy itself, ethical journalists must report that truth out, without fear or favor.

What the Columbia Settlement Really Means

The Columbia settlement is an “astonishing transfer of autonomy and authority to . . . an administration whose disdain for the values of the academy is demonstrated anew every day.” New @knightcolumbia.org analysis of the Columbia settlement, just published. knightcolumbia.org/blog/what-th...

They are late to using the authoritarian playbook frame.

They also have played a key role in normalizing authoritarianism.

Both can be accurate & not in conflict.

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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...

The ties that news media companies “have with government interests, including their dependency on government contracts, merger approvals & other official” actions “in most cases explain why so many of these media companies have bent the knee to the political powers that be.”— @freepress.bsky.social

The evidence to date has been alarming: constrained by expired norms, corporate control, cowardly or venal owners, & collapsing public trust, mainstream news outlets failed to warn Americans about the existential risk a
fascist regime poses to democracy.

Now, an authoritarian takeover is ongoing.

“If American media can’t convey how dangerous this behavior is—for our prosperity, for our health, for our democracy—then American media will eventually cease to exist.”

“That’s why Trump is seeking to destroy not just media but also government statisticians, universities and any other trusted institutions that can contradict his myths and fictions.”

Applebaum on Autocracy Anne Applebaum warns that Sudan’s descent into chaos shows what happens when institutions fail—and why a free press is essential to prevent America from following the same path.

“For news organizations, the issue isn’t responsibility, but survival. Autocratic leaders don’t want evidence-based journalism of any kind to exist at all: They want to shape reality, to decide themselves what is true and false.” — @anneapplebaum.bsky.social

www.status.news/p/anne-apple...

Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils.

“Official statistics, government statistics are a mirror that society holds up to itself,” Andreas Georgiou said.

“If society cannot see itself clearly, then it cannot identify its problems. If it cannot identify its problems, then it cannot find the right solutions.”

Column | Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement. Our tech columnist drafted 65 community notes, Meta’s new crowdsourced system to fight falsehoods. It failed to make a dent.

Meta didn’t answer @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social’s questions about how many Community Notes it has published, how many participants are now writing notes, or whether there’s evidence it is making an impact — despite promising to be transparent about the program.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Fish burgers & fried clams at Luntz. The oil was aging, but the sammiches & clams were legit.

Bunches of wild Maine blueberries

Golden spaniels on a boardwalk

Pond with wildflowers

One Sunday in Acadia

How journalists should respond to the "Authoritarian Playbook" Good afternoon from sweltering Washington, where I'm hunkering down in air conditioning and parsing what the Supreme Court's decision on Murthy vs Missouri means for how social media companies and U.S...

President Trump is a corrupt demagogue who has defined, refined, & applied the modern authoritarian playbook to deconstructing our democracy: civic-texts.ghost.io/how-journali... @nytimes.com is late to applying this frame, but it is a watershed to see Baker do so:
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/u...

How journalists should respond to the "Authoritarian Playbook" Good afternoon from sweltering Washington, where I'm hunkering down in air conditioning and parsing what the Supreme Court's decision on Murthy vs Missouri means for how social media companies and U.S...

True: He is a corrupt demagogue who has defined, refined, & applied the modern authoritarian playbook to deconstructing American democracy.

Like Axios, The Times is late to applying this frame, but it is a watershed that it’s finally happened.
civic-texts.ghost.io/how-journali...

Trump’s Efforts to Control Information Echo an Authoritarian Playbook

This is a very good (but also very disturbing) survey from @peterbakernyt.bsky.social of the Trump admin policies that are intended to deprive the public of accurate info about government. I might have also included the expulsions from the White House press pool.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/u...