Today's News: "First they came for the journalists. We don't know what happened after that."

\

In the last few months, American media has lost Joy Reid, Brian Stelter, Don Lemon, Katie Phang, Alex Wagner, Jim Acosta, Terry Moran.
American journalism is teetering now:

CBS, Disney sell out, bribe Trump openly. CBS cancels Colbert, compromises 60 Min. WaPost is gutted. CNN undermined by fake both sidesing. LA Times coopted. NYT on the fence, offering mix of news, squishy takes. X seized by the right. Admin is a lie machine. We're losing Trump's war on truth..

- David Rothkopf

Read on Substack

Here's a counterpoint argument:

This administration is much, much weaker than they would like you to believe. In many cases they're making themselves weaker through incompetent self-sabotage. Claiming they've successfully brought about a fascist regime because they've committed lawless acts of cruelty is doing their work for them

— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 11:11 PM

But when a powerful figure like a President starts shit-talking against an individual or a media organization - like Natasha Bertrand, Stephen Colbert, Rosie O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Jim Acosta, Associated Press, CNN, NPR, PBS, ABC, CBS -- it really doesn't matter whether or not his insults are successful. The threat alone is chilling. People across the country will hear it, and fear it, and never speak up again.

And here's a grim prophecy
David R. Lurie / Public Notice

The emerging coup
Lawless authoritarian regimes don't give up power willingly.
....Given the already massive scale of criminality in the Trump regime from the White House on down, Trump and all of his cronies have even more reason to be concerned about the prospect of being held to account. Additionally, as Anne Applebaum recently observed, Trump’s massive expansion of executive powers will make the prospect of a Democratic president all the more frightening for the members of the administration. They will have every reason to expect that a Democratic successor to Trump in the White House will use the newly enhanced powers of the office to hold Trump and company accountable in ways they didn’t during the Biden years. Against that backdrop, Trumpers may consider ensuring the victory of Trump’s designated successor in 2028 to be essential as a matter of self-preservation.
As anyone who lived through January 6 remembers, Trump and his cronies have already shown themselves willing to attempt to hold on to power illegally. More recently, by pardoning the J6 insurrectionists en masse, Trump took a major step toward legitimizing right-wing coup schemes, much as Hitler rendered his failed Munich putsch into an event worthy of annual celebration.
Therefore, it is not only possible, but must be viewed as likely that in the wake of an 2028 electoral loss, Trumpists will take every step available to them to maintain control of the White House — including, if necessary, illegal ones.
But by then, Trump and his crew will have new tools at their disposal, including a beefed up ICE that will include large phalanxes of masked thugs who are experienced in using violence at the president’s behest. Thus, if the time comes for Trumpers to effectuate yet another post-election coup, they will have a ready and willing militarized federal police force to back them up and will not have to rely on a ragtag array of right-wing tourists.
While many are currently rightly concerned about the impact Trump’s brutal “immigration crackdown” will have on undocumented persons, the danger of his creation of a massive, non-law-abiding federal police force could extend far beyond the immigration. Congress has just handed the coup leader in the White House new, dangerous tools that he and his cohorts could use in their next attempt to overturn the nation’s democracy once and for all.

Some media organizations are still standing their ground - so far, at least, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and Wired are leading the pack in finding and breaking critical stories:

Kudos to all members of the WSJ team who resisted legal threats from the president to do journalism about the president.

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 5:04 PM

No shade toward Wired, who have a done a lot of fantastic journalism this year alone, but isn't it a tiny bit concerning that they're constantly scooping legacy political media with far fewer resources? If I were a reporter at a legacy outlet, that would make me question what my bosses are doing.

— Charlotte Clymer (@charlotteclymer.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 6:03 PM

In Canada, a variety of funds were established through Trudeau government legislation to support Canadian journalism - the Canada Periodical Fund, the Local Journalism Initiative, the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit, and the Canadian Journalism Collective -- allowing media and newspapers across the country to hire more reporters and cover more news. 

And here's some good news tonight:

View on Threads

This would never have happened without this injustice being publicized Just more proof that journalists must find the courage to keep on.  

As "traditional" media becomes compromised by its hedge-fund owners and cringes to Trump, the phenomenon of our times that may save us is the rapid development of independent journalism platforms -- Substack, Word Press, Beehive and Blogger are examples - where US journalists and experts like Seth Abramson, Duncan Black, Paul Klugman, Judd Legum, Parker Molloy, Hamilton Nolan, Phillips O'Brien, Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, David Rothkopf, and Aaron Rupar can publish their work and thousands of people will subscribe to support them.  And also there are independent US newsletters and journalist consortiums, like Defector, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos, Lincoln Square, Meidas Touch, Talking Points Memo, The Bulwark, and Uncharted Blue where groups of journalists can research and publish their stories without fear or favour. 

So far, at least, we do still know what is happening.