Lessons of History and Trying To Avoid the Same Mistakes

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Last year a small Australian news outlet posted a bold headline that sent ripples through the Australian media landscape and led to a legal thread from Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

What a nice (and true) headline
After initially being afraid of the dangers of messing with such a powerful family they pulled the article from their website only to later publish a larger series of lengthy legal demands sent to them by Lachlan Murdoch, as well as their lawyers’ replies to those demands. They even took out a full-paged ad in the New Your Times, daring Murdoch to sue them.

In August Lachlan Murdoch filed a defamation law suit against Crikey and several of its editors and executives and alleged grave reputational harm by the article they published.

Today, only a few days after Fox News agreed to pay out $787.5m to Dominion over false claims the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump with the help of their rigged voting machines Murdoch decided to drop the law suit all together.

The reasons for Murdoch to let Crikey go unharmed are not clear yet, but with a new trove of statements made in depositions during the discovery phase of the Dominion lawsuit there might be something buried, that Crikey would have been able to use for it’s defense.

This likely won’t be the last time the settlement in the Dominion case may have repercussions to other ongoing legal cases. It looks like the first few cracks have opened in the dam the Fox has erected to shield itself from accountability. The question is when the steady drip will turn into a torrent that sweeps away everything in its path. I for one have my popcorn ready.

First fallout from ferocious Fox's futile fight for fictitious facts.

Oh boy, I really love me some alliteration. It looks like the Dominion settlement has brought down the first domin(i)o(n) in a whole series of cases involving Fox and its owners. Last year a small Australian news outlet posted a bold headline that sent...

www.dailykos.com

 

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BREAKING: Trump issues DANGEROUS public threat​

 

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Again, and again, the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship. At the same time, a 2022 poll found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning. Yet the bans continue. Many public school districts find themselves in a bind. They face threats and political pressure, along with parental fears and anxieties surrounding the books on their school shelves. School Boards, administrators, teachers, and librarians are told in some cases to “err on the side of caution” in the books they make available. Too often, they do just that.
These efforts to chill speech are part of the ongoing nationwide “Ed Scare” — a campaign to foment anxiety and anger with the goal of suppressing free expression in public education. As book bans escalate, coupled with the proliferation of legislative efforts to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities, the freedom to read, learn, and think continues to be undermined for students.
Below, PEN America updates its tally and analysis of book bans during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, from July to December 2022. This research builds on PEN America’s 2022 report, Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools, which covered book bans from July 2021 to June 2022.
PEN America Experts
Kasey Meehan
Jonathan Friedman, Ph.D.
Published April 20, 2023
Donate Today
Join PEN America in defending the freedom to read.

Key Findings: ​

• During the first half of the 2022-23 school year PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles, an increase of 28 percent compared to the prior six months, January – June 2022. That is more instances of book banning than recorded in either the first or second half of the 2021-22 school year. Over this six-month timeline, the total instances of book bans affected over 800 titles; this equates to over 100 titles removed from student access each month.
• This school year, instances of book bans are most prevalent in Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina.These bans are driven by a confluence of local actors and state-level policy. The implications of bans in these five states are far-reaching, as policies and practices are modeled and replicated across the country.
  
• Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.In this six-month period, 30% of the unique titles banned are books about race, racism, or feature characters of color. Meanwhile, 26% of unique titles banned have LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
  
• Due to cases where long lists of books are removed for further investigation, bans this school year are increasingly affecting a wider swath of titles, including those that portray violence and abuse (44%), discuss topics of health and wellbeing (38%), and cover death and grief (30%).This illuminates how censorship impacts a wide array of books, particularly as school districts respond to vague legislation by removing large numbers of books prior to any formal review.
  
• The process behind book challenges and bans is evolving. During the 2021-22 school year, parent-led groups coordinated to advance book censorship. These groups pressured districts to remove books without following their own policies, even in some cases, removing books without reading them. That trend has continued in the 2022-23 school year, but it has also been supercharged by a new source of pressure: state legislation. School districts in many states are reacting to new laws that dictate the types of books that can even be in schools, or what kinds of policies they have to follow to add new books and review their collections.
  
• Books are more frequently labeled “pornographic” or “indecent.” Dozens of books were targeted for removal in the 2021-22 school year on the basis that they contained sexual content. But since last summer, this framing has become an increasing focus of activists and politicians to justify removing books that do not remotely fit the well-established legal and colloquial definitions of “pornography.” Rhetoric about “porn in schools” has also been advanced as justification for the passage or introduction of new state laws, some of which would bar any books with sexual content and could easily sweep up a wide swath of literature and health-related content.
  
• The full impact of the book ban movement is greater than can be counted, as “wholesale bans” are restricting access to untold numbers of books in classrooms and school libraries. This school year, numerous states enacted “wholesale bans” in which entire classrooms and school libraries have been suspended, closed, or emptied of books, either permanently or temporarily. This is largely because teachers and librarians in several states have been directed to catalog entire collections for public scrutiny within short timeframes, under threat of punishment from new, vague laws. These “wholesale bans,” have involved the culling of books that were previously available to students, in ways that are impossible to track or quantify.

(full article online)

2023 Banned Books Update: Banned in the USA

In this 2023 banned books update, PEN America recorded more book bans during the fall 2022 semester than in each of the prior two semesters.

pen.org

 

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Over 700 replies, almost all from the OP to the OP. WTF?

 

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2/ ...issues for the demo. (Boomer, older GenX non-hs grads who comprise the core of the base). On the alt-right, Bannon's stompy-foot pissy-fit about Tucker and Fox tells you he lost the single best venue for laundering white nationalist...

3/ ...agitprop into the normies cable boxes. His "I'm just telling you why the Soros-funded brown people are trying to rape your women and take your job by cucking you" schtick was normative and essential for Bannon et al on the alt-reich.

4/ The white nats loved Tucker, whom they called "Our guy" and correctly saw him as a gateway drug for their more virulent and obvious messages. For normies, Tucker could wink and nod about it, but the white-robe crowd filled their hate spank banks with Tucker clips.

5/ For the loons, there was nothing he couldn't amp up. Election fraud, vaccine denial, Soros, and every other nutbird conspiracy was laundered into the "THEY are hiding the SECRET TRUTH from you"...and it validated the crazies in the same way as the white nats.

6/ The shock of this will ripple through the enormous right-wing media ecosystem for ages to come. He was the big goal for MAGA activists: the Tucker Hit. Consider this: Ron DeSantis predicated his entire campaign on winning the "Tucker Primary."

7/ Many people on the right have adopted a position that may be wishcasting; "Tucker will be back on a new streaming channel tomorrow and you'll rue the day, libtards!" Maybe not. Fox probably has a pretty stiff noncompete in his contract, so I wouldn't count...

8/ ...on the Tucker Carlson White Power Hour on the Blaze or Daily Wire any time soon. TBD, of course, but Fox will leak those details soon enough to chill the waters. Which leads us to a fascinating prospect...

9/ What if he runs? He's rich enough. He'd instantly have an online fundraising juggernaut second only to Trump, and perhaps surpassing him. He's polarizing, terrible, and utterly amoral...in short, better than Ron DeSantis for the base. I'd argue he's the only Republican...

10/ ...who presents a material danger to Donald Trump in a primary. Celebrity, money, mental acuity, cynicism, pro-Putin isolationism, and an overt love of authoritarianism are a pretty strong secret sauce for the MAGA base. Celebrity got Trump the WH.

11/ It could certainly do the same for Tucker. And spare me your "That could never happen. Even Trump's GOP would never vote for a former TV host pushing white replacement theory." That's PRECISELY who they'd vote for.

12/ This iteration of "A Face In the Crowd" doesn't end with a revelation of the real character of the showman-as-politician. This one ends with Tucker running and possibly winning a herrenvolk campaign, where his flaws don't matter, only his capacity for hate. End.

 

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Washington’s state Capitol was closed to the public on Tuesday due to security concerns as Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law a bill prohibiting the sale of AR-15s and more than 50 other types of assault weapons. The law will take effect immediately, making Washington the 10th state to enact such a ban. “These weapons of war, assault weapons, have no reason other than mass murder,” Inslee said at the ceremony, according to The Seattle Times. “Their only purpose is to kill humans as rapidly as possible in large numbers.” The ban, which applies to the sale, manufacture, and importation of 62 different gun models, does not affect weapons that people already own. At least one group opposing the measure has already filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the law deemed unconstitutional. It’s also likely to face a legal challenge from the National Rifle Association, which sued Illinois in January over a similar law. “We are not intimidated by the NRA,” Inslee said at the ceremony.

Washington State Forced to Close Capitol as Guv Signs AR-15 Ban

“These weapons of war, assault weapons, have no reason other than mass murder,” Gov. Jay Inslee said at the signing ceremony.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

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Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature will clear the way for Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president in 2024 by changing state law to make it clear he would not have to resign his current position if he became the GOP nominee.

With time running out on this year’s annual session, Senate Republicans will add the provision to a sweeping elections bill that will go before the full Senate on Wednesday. The elections bill is a top priority for DeSantis and Republicans and is expected to go to the governor’s desk between now and May 5.

(full article online)

Florida GOP lawmakers ready move allowing DeSantis to run for president without resigning

With time running out on this year’s annual session, Senate Republicans will add the provision to a sweeping elections bill.

www.politico.com

 

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Today we also heard from Abby Grossberg, the former booking producer at Fox News who has sued her former employer. She gave an interview to Nicolle Wallace on Deadline: White House, and it was a bombshell. First off, it’s important to acknowledge that Grossberg is no hero. She said in the interview that she had been willing to lie under oath in a deposition to save her job. In fact, her entire time at Fox seems to have revolved around a desire to avoid killing off her career in an environment that valued her almost less than it valued the truth of what it told its viewers on air. There is no exception to the obligation to be truthful in a court proceeding for people who are afraid that their job is at risk, but it took bravery to come forward and tell the truth. Grossberg candidly said she did it, when she realized she was being set up to take the fall for the entire Dominion complaint.

There’s space here to feel a little empathy for the position Grossberg was in. But the reality is, she took the job voluntarily and says she stayed because she believed in Maria Bartiromo, until she left her show to work for Tucker Carlson, in part because she thought his status would provide her with protection. That she didn’t flee when Carlson started lying about fraud and the outcome of the 2020 election—which she knew about; it was her notes and tapes of pre-interviews that brought the evidence that Fox tried to conceal to light—suggests a level of complicity. It’s complicated, though. Grossberg was also, according to her complaint, working in a hostile environment that was saturated with conduct that demeaned and belittled women. That can impact judgment. Fox has said her allegations are wrong and can be disproven. They said that at the outset of the Dominion case too. Time will tell.

But something that is clear is that whether Grossberg’s lawsuit was the precursor to Carlson’s sudden departure from the network or not, the environment there was formidably hostile to women. What must his wife and his daughters think? Grossberg’s complaint says that Carlson expressed the following opinions:

• That arranged marriages between adults and children are not rape because “the rapist” makes a lifelong commitment to take care of his victim
• That sex workers are sluts
• That he would “love” the idea of 14-year-old girls experimenting sexually with each other, although he really shouldn’t where his own daughters’ school was involved

Carroll and Grossberg’s lawsuits have both captured public attention at a time when it’s become clear that it’s open season on women’s rights in parts of this country. There’s Dobbs. There’s the failure to make the Equal Rights Amendment the law of the land. There’s the ascension to the Supreme Court of a woman who was, literally, a handmaid. And Tucker Carlson was permitted by Fox to stay in place as one of the most-watched cable news hosts in the country until Monday despite the knowledge that he had said women are “extremely primitive, they’re basic, they’re not that hard to understand.”



Back in March 2021, no less of a staid institution than the Pentagon felt compelled to rebuked Carlson for saying, “So we’ve got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits—pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It’s a mockery of the U.S. military.” He made those comments after two women—Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost of the Air Force and Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson of the Army—were nominated to lead combat commands. Tucker Carlson, who never served a day in uniform in his life and was reportedly rejectedwhen he applied for a job with the CIA after college, had the temerity to criticize high ranking military personnel because they are women.

The Pentagon tweeted this to drive home the point.



But the damage has been done. Misogyny has seeped into the mainstream of modern life. Someday, historians may look back and conclude there were many people in post-Trump America suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Women certainly are. They knew early—they organized the nationwide women’s marches the day after his inauguration. Today they’re living with the consequences of that administration, Trump’s contempt for women, reversals of legal rights, and a general acceptance of attitudes that shouldn’t be tolerated. Consider doing something to support the women around you today, like the tweet the Pentagon sent out. There are women who’ve toughed it out and kept fighting for what’s right in a difficult time. There’s a bit of a hostile environment, nationally, for women, and we’re all feeling it. Let’s make sure we take care of each other.

Misogyny Abounds

E. Jean Carroll and Abby Grossberg

joycevance.substack.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

His research brought him to Indiana, where he credits numerous state historians and institutions for preserving a trove of records on Stephenson’s power and the 1925 trial. Indianapolis, for example, had at least three thriving daily papers in the 1920s, “and there would be a Klan story almost every day”, said Egan. “It wasn’t some hidden thing.” In plain sight, though not a history much discussed in the midwest (I can confirm that, growing up in Ohio, I had no idea that state Klan membership once pushed 200,000). “We’re having this big debate in America right now about how much of our history is appropriate to teach,” said Egan, who subscribes to the belief that “it’s OK to teach the history that doesn’t reflect well on us, because sometimes it makes us stronger.”

Stephenson was, if you haven’t picked up on it by now, an obviously Trumpian figure. He had a shady business past; he crested a wave of xenophobic mania; he bragged about having “the biggest brains”. His lavish parties, thrown even as the Klan backed Prohibition, were “bacchanals of bad taste”. Egan confirms he was, of course, drawn to the comparison, but that it’s broader than just Trump. “He’s a very American character – Trumpian, yes, but you could see him going back to any conman in our history,” he said. “It’s because he figures out what people want to believe. And then they’re willing to overlook his obvious character defects.”

“There certainly are some echoes” to the present Maga movement, such as “thinking you can go back to when America was different and homogenous and everybody was happy, which is bullshit,” Egan said. “It’s just not the truth. The slogan of the Klan in the 20s was not ‘make America great’, it was ‘100% Americanism’, which is pretty damn close.”

The Trump movement has not cratered quite as swiftly as the resurgent KKK, whose membership plummeted following Stephenson’s exposure and trial. That was in part, Egan argues, from Oberholtzer’s moving words. And more darkly, he supposes, from their successes. Jim Crow ruled for several more decades. The highly restrictive and race-targeted Immigration Act of 1924 held almost as long. Klan-backed eugenic sterilization laws stayed on the books until the 1970s.

These truths about America “aren’t necessarily ones we would embrace”, said Egan. “But we could be better people for looking at them, better people for understanding them.”


(full article online )

A Fever in the Heartland: how the KKK gripped the American midwest in the 20s

Timothy Egan’s new book recounts the mainstreaming of the racist group and its unraveling after one woman’s testimony

www.theguardian.com

 

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Several weeks ago, as Fox News lawyers prepared for a courtroom showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, they presented Tucker Carlson with what they thought was good news: They had persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time he called a senior Fox News executive the c-word, according to people familiar with the matter.


(full article online)

Tucker Carlson’s Vulgar, Offensive Messages About Colleagues Helped Seal His Fate at Fox News

Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson called a senior executive the c-word in a redacted missive, and the network grew wary of further possible embarrassment.

www.wsj.com

 

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• For months, DeSantis has been lobbying consistent attacks against freedom of speech and journalism to shore up support for his obvious Presidential campaign, targeting young people, communities of color, and LGBTQ youth.
• Gutted protections for anonymous sources,making it significantly more difficult for journalists to call out abuses by his regime;
• Banned Florida Teachers from referencing LGTBQ+ issues with any students, threatening their careers;
• Removed African American History from the AP curriculum, further whitewashing American history in the public education system;

Max Lubin

 

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Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation - Jon Ward

Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was...

www.jonwardwrites.org

Jon Ward says writing about the evangelical movement released bottled up emotions

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Jon Ward, Yahoo News chief national correspondent, about his memoir: Testimony, which details his upbringing in, and break from, an influential evangelical church.

www.wlrn.org