Freedom of Speech

Babbittry, Blogging, Boosterism, Culture, Disinformation, Freedom of Speech, Mendacity, Public Relations, Rhetoric

The Power of Refutation

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/10/2021 • 1 Comment

Laura Hazard Owen writes When’s the best time to correct fake news? After someone’s already read it, apparently: Debunking > prebunking. If you want someone to not believe that false or misleading headline they just read, when’s the best time to correct it? We hear a lot about inoculating people against fake news or “prebunking”…

America, Culture, Freedom of Speech, Justice, Local Government, Race

‘A New Generation Challenges the Heartland’

by JOHN ADAMS • 01/28/2021 • Comments

Last July, Tim Craig and Aaron Williams reported A new generation challenges the heartland (‘Big changes in small towns are fueling a racial justice movement across the Midwest’). They wrote last summer that The number of young people of color living in the Midwest has surged over the past decade, as the older white population…

Culture, Freedom of Speech, Politics, Protests, Race

Widespread, Continuing National Support for Racial Justice Protests

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/29/2020 • Comments

Steven Long and Justin McCarthy of Gallup report Two in Three Americans Support Racial Justice Protests: WASHINGTON, D.C. — About two in three Americans (65%) support the nationwide protests about racial injustice that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May. Half say they feel “very” (23%) or…

Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Police, Trump, Unfit, Violence, William Barr

Detailed Video Timeline of the Crackdown on Protesters Before Trump’s Photo Op

by JOHN ADAMS • 06/09/2020 • Comments

The Washington Post analyzed hours of video footage and obtained audio of police communications and other records to assemble the most complete account to date of the June 1 crackdown on protesters in Washington D.C.. Late in the day on June 1, demonstrators gathered near the White House, on the edge of Lafayette Square, to…

America, Coronavirus, Freedom of Speech, Israel, Libertarians, Liberty

Israeli Discipline, American Disorder

by JOHN ADAMS • 04/20/2020 • Comments

Free expression is not a rejection of reason, including reason in public health. Libertarian politics – of free markets in capital, labor, and goods, of responsible government, of individual liberty, and of peaceful international relations – requires a mature discipline. I do not support recent protests against temporary public health measures during this pandemic. And…

Authoritarianism, Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Russian Federation

Yegor Zhukov’s Message

by JOHN ADAMS • 12/16/2019 • Comments

At the New Yorker, Masha Gessen translates A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow (‘Yegor Zhukov’s message about responsibility and love at his trial, for “extremism,” shows what political dissent can be and seems to describe American reality as accurately as the Russian one’). (Zhukov was accused of “extremism”…

Babbittry, Blogging, City, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Newspapers, Open Government, Press

Sunshine Week 2019

by JOHN ADAMS • 03/10/2019 • Comments

It’s Sunshine Week in America: a seven-day focus from the American Society of News Editors and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on “access to public information and what it means for you and your community.” One doesn’t have to be a reporter (and bloggers, for example, are not reporters) to understand the importance…

Culture, Freedom of Speech, Never Trump, Resistance

The Middle Lane is a Dirt Road to Decay

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/14/2019 • Comments

Media critic Margaret Sullivan writes that The media feel safest in the middle lane. Just ask Jeff Flake, John Kasich and Howard Schultz: One of the supposed golden rules of journalism goes like this: “If everybody’s mad at your coverage, you must be doing a good job.” That’s ridiculous, of course, though it seems comforting. If…

America, Elections, Freedom of Speech, Good Ideas, Law, Libertarians, Liberty, Never Trump, Politics, Trump

Jennifer Rubin on ‘Three big ideas to bolster democracy’

by JOHN ADAMS • 10/19/2018 • Comments

Jennifer Rubin writes of three ideas to bolster democracy (enhanced voting rights, independent and non-partisan justice, and robust speech rights): First, Republicans, in an effort to hang on to their declining electoral advantage based on white voters, have tried every trick in the book to limit voting by those they suspect will favor Democrats. Hence,…

America, City, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Local Government, New Media, Newspapers, Politics, Press, Resistance, That Which Paved the Way, Trump

‘A Free Press Needs You’

by JOHN ADAMS • 08/16/2018 • Comments

Following Trump’s repeated attacks on the press as the enemy of the people, hundreds of publications across America are today uniting in a defense of their right to free expression. The editorial board of the New York Times, in A Free Press Needs You, describes our heritage and the threat to it: In 1787, the…

America, Babbittry, Blogging, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Newspapers, That Which Paved the Way, Trump

Print’s Continuing Decline (and the Message for Digital)

by JOHN ADAMS • 06/11/2018 • Comments

One can be a critic of newspapers (for their low quality and high boosterism), and yet feel a sadness at their decline. There’s a notice in the Janesville Gazette about downsizing of the daily print edition. See Objective: Preserve local journalism in the face of rising costs. Editor Sid Schwartz tells readers that the Gazette…

Freedom of Speech, Open Government

Sunshine Week 2018 (Introduction)

by JOHN ADAMS • 03/12/2018 • Comments

March 11 to 17 is Sunshine Week in America, an ‘annual nationwide celebration of access to public information and what it means for you and your community.’ If the country, then the state, if the state, then the city, if the city, then Whitewater. So here we are. Although Sunshine Week is seven days, open…