First Amendment – Media Nation

An indie journalist in Worcester avoids having to identify his confidential sources — for now

*Worcester City Hall. Photo (cc) 2015 by Dan Kennedy.*

An independent news organization called This Week in Worcester may be compelled to identify its confidential sources as the result of a libel suit brought against the outlet by a city police officer. First Amendment watchdog Andrew Quemere posted about the case on Bluesky.

Please support this free source of news and commentary by joining my Patreon for just $6 a month. Supporters receive a weekly newsletter with exclusive content.

According to Brad Petrishen of the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Superior Court Judge Gillian Feiner decided not to force This Week publisher Thomas Marino to identify his sources at this time, and she urged Marino and the plaintiff, Officer Thomas Duffy II, to work out a pre-trial settlement. Feiner did not rule out requiring Marino to identify his sources later on.

Continue reading “An indie journalist in Worcester avoids having to identify his confidential sources — for now”

Two cheers for the Mass. Senate, whose proposed shield law would formalize the status quo

*The Massachusetts Statehouse. Photo (cc) 2024 by Dan Kennedy.*

The Massachusetts Senate has passed a shield law that would give journalists some protection from having to identify their confidential sources, reports Matt Stout (sub. req.) in The Boston Globe. But it’s not clear how much the measure would actually accomplish.

Please support this free source of news and commentary by joining my Patreon for just $6 a month. Supporters receive a weekly newsletter with exclusive content.

The shield legislation, in the form of an amendment filed by Sen. Rebecca Rausch, a Needham Democrat, would have to pass the House and be signed by Gov. Maura Healey before it becomes law.

Continue reading “Two cheers for the Mass. Senate, whose proposed shield law would formalize the status quo”

Three for Friday: Trump and the Times, Mass. public records and journalism cuts at UMass Dartmouth

I’m heading out for a family wedding in a little while, but the media news keeps coming. Here are three stories you should be aware of.

📰 Trump backs down. “The federal government says it will drop its subpoenas compelling New York Times reporters to testify about anonymous sources in a case that involved President Donald Trump’s claims about a Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet” (CNN). My earlier coverage.

📰 Mass. Senate to boost public records. “Top Senate Democrats signaled Thursday they will seek a vote next week on legislation that would, like a bill passed last month in the House, subject both the governor’s office and the Legislature to some kind of public records framework, taking aim at the same topic already targeted by a question on the November ballot” (CommonWealth Beacon).

📰 Journalism cuts at UMass Dartmouth. “Student journalists at UMass Dartmouth are speaking out about what they say may be unfair treatment, or even retribution, after the university’s only journalism professor was let go — two months after a university dean wrote that the professor’s contract extension was already ‘approved’” (New Bedford Light).

In 2024, Trump killed a federal shield law. Now he’s exploiting that to harass The New York Times.

*One of several planes that have been used as Air Force One. Photo (cc) 2015 by Gage Skidmore.*

In the waning days of the last Congress in December 2024, a Republican senator killed efforts to pass a federal shield law that would have protected journalists from being forced to identify their anonymous sources or turn over confidential documents.

If you value news and commentary like this, please sign up for free email delivery of new posts — and consider becoming a supporter for just $6 a month. Supporters receive a weekly email with exclusive content.

The so-called PRESS Act, which had passed the House unanimously, died when Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas — acting at the behest of Donald Trump, who’d just been re-elected — objected to an attempt to pass it by unanimous consent. Cotton said that passage would turn senators “into the active accomplice of deep-state leakers, traitors and criminals, along with the America-hating and fame-hungry journalists who help them out.”

Now we see the consequences of Cotton’s recklessness. Michael M. Grynbaum reports in The New York Times that three of the five Times journalists who exposed security problems on the new Air Force One — a corrupt gift to Trump from the Qatari government — received subpoenas ordering them to reveal their sources.

Continue reading “In 2024, Trump killed a federal shield law. Now he’s exploiting that to harass The New York Times.”

From the Trump regime to a rogue judge in New Jersey, the First Amendment is under assault

*New Jersey Superior Court Judge Thomas McCloskey. Official photo via the New Jersey Globe.*

It’s not a good day for the First Amendment, as four New York Times journalists have been subpoenaed in connection with their report (sub. req.) that Donald Trump’s new Air Force One plane — a gift that he corruptly accepted from the Qatari government — lacks important security features.

The journalists have been called to testify before a federal grand jury on Wednesday. Although the exact nature of the inquiry hasn’t been revealed, it’s probably an attempt by the Trump regime to determine who leaked the information to the Times.

This morning, though, I want to call your attention to a more blatant violation of the First Amendment: a judge’s demand that a New Jersey newspaper remove school security footage from its YouTube channel and refrain even from writing about it. On Thursday, the judge softened his order slightly but then extended it to all news outlets.

Continue reading “From the Trump regime to a rogue judge in New Jersey, the First Amendment is under assault”

For the second time in a week, federal agents threaten critics of the Trump regime in upstate NY

*Federal agents looking for David Streever at his home in Rochester, N.Y. Photo via Syracuse.com.*

Here we go again. Last week Michelle Breidenbach of Syracuse.com reported that a poll worker in Syracuse, New York, had been handed a threatening letter by two federal agents.

Follow my Bluesky newsfeed for additional news and commentary. And please join my Patreon for just $6 a month. You’ll receive a supporters-only newsletter every Thursday.

The letter, which claimed she had endangered ICE personnel, was almost certainly the result of her having written an Instagram post calling on Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Minneapolis protester Renee Good, to be indicted. Ross had already been publicly identified in the press. (The Syracuse incident was the subject of my newsletter last week for paid supporters, which I’m now offering for free.)

Now we learn that two federal agents showed up at a home in Rochester, New York, last Tuesday to deliver a warning about an email that David Streever had sent to Todd Lyons last February. At that time Lyons was the interim director of ICE; he’s since left that post. Breidenbach reports that Streever was on vacation in Finland with his 7-year-old daughter, so the letter was left with his wife, Hilary Brandt Streever, an Episcopal priest.

Continue reading “For the second time in a week, federal agents threaten critics of the Trump regime in upstate NY”

Why the Prairieland case is more about disproportionate justice than it is the First Amendment

*Prairieland Detention Facility. Photo via the Texas Immigration Law Council.*

Draconian sentences handed down against protesters at an ICE facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are being characterized as an abridgment of their First Amendment rights. The reason: Among the bill of particulars used against them in court were anarchist zines in their possession that they tried to hide from authorities.

Follow my Bluesky newsfeed for additional news and commentary. And please join my Patreon for just $6 a month. You’ll receive a supporters-only newsletter every Thursday.

But though the case raises serious questions about the proportionality of their sentences, it’s also a lot more complicated than that given that a police officer who responded to the scene was shot in the neck by one of the protesters. Benjamin Song, who was convicted of attempted murder, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. The officer recovered.

Continue reading “Why the Prairieland case is more about disproportionate justice than it is the First Amendment”

Religious-right House members to public schools: Ban these books or lose your funding

I want to call your attention to a bill in the U.S. House that would severely restrict the books that are available to students in public schools, either in the classroom or in school libraries. I don’t know whether there’s a serious chance of its being enacted into law, but it’s bad news, and it needs to be quashed at the earliest opportunity.

Follow my Bluesky newsfeed for additional news and commentary. And please join my Patreon for just $6 a month. You’ll receive a supporters-only newsletter every Thursday.

The proposal, H.R. 7661, is called the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act. It would “prohibit the use of funds provided … to develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material, and for other purposes.” It’s cosponsored by 22 House members, all Republicans.

Continue reading “Religious-right House members to public schools: Ban these books or lose your funding”

Trump falsely claims ‘treason’ in ordering his acting AG to target freedom of the press

*Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Photo (cc) 2023 by BruceSchaff.*

Donald Trump and his acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, are targeting The Wall Street Journal in an effort to learn the identity of sources who leaked information to its journalists about internal dissent over the war in Iran, according to CNN reporters Hannah Rabinowitz and Kaitlan Collins. Trump himself has reportedly told Blanche that reporters for the Journal and other news organizations committed “treason.” More about that below, but first: How did we get here?

Follow my Bluesky newsfeed for additional news and commentary. And please join my Patreon for just $6 a month. You’ll receive a supporters-only newsletter every Thursday.

In October 2022, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland issued guidelines that severely restricted the conditions under which the Justice Department could seek to force journalists to identify anonymous sources or turn over confidential documents.

Garland’s action was intended as a response to the discovery that Justice had secretly obtained phone records of three Washington Post reporters during Trump’s first term. In fact, though, presidents had been pursuing reporters over leaks for years. Journalists were threatened with jail under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Garland’s order reversed actions taken during the early months of Joe Biden’s administration as well.

Continue reading “Trump falsely claims ‘treason’ in ordering his acting AG to target freedom of the press”

Kash Patel’s ongoing crusade to weaponize the FBI against freedom of the press

Kash Patel. Photo (cc) 2017 by Gage Skidmore.

Despite the Trump regime’s ongoing attempts to dismantle the First Amendment, there are important checks that remain in place. Libel protections against frivolous lawsuits remain strong — as long as news organizations use them rather than caving in to Donald Trump’s threats. Prior restraint is almost unheard of.

Follow my Bluesky newsfeed for additional news and commentary. And please join my Patreon for just $6 a month. You’ll receive a supporters-only newsletter every Thursday.

One aspect of press freedom that has been left outside the walls of the First Amendment, though, is a recognition that journalists need to protect their anonymous sources and confidential documents. Forty-nine states, including Massachusetts, provide some protection. But the federal government does not. And one of former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s first actions after Trump returned to the White House was to weaken Justice Department guidelines put in place by her predecessor, Merrick Garland, to make it easier for the government to demand access to that information.

Continue reading “Kash Patel’s ongoing crusade to weaponize the FBI against freedom of the press”