Remember this post - from a few days ago - about how I was marking a baseline for free speech in the USA?
I'm still speaking my mind, but looks like the mainstream press is having a tougher time. Several senior editors and reporters have left the Washington Post, including political cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who resigned when King Bezos's minions killed her cartoon about supplicant tech execs.
Below is the cartoon the paper chose not to run:
(c) Copyright Ann Telnaes
First they kill cartoons, then they kill stories on the EPIC corruption we can expect from this White House and it's actual - though by no means elected - chief decision maker, #EmperorMusk.
As I've said
repeatedly over the years, the nonproift sector in the USA has much to learn from the past two decades of the hollowed out journalism industry. It also has much to fear from the press's capitulation to POTUS and his tempermental vindictiveness.
It's not just the WashPost. Did you read in the paper about the manifesto written by the guy (US born, white) who blew up a cybertruck in front of a Trump Hotel? No, you didn't. Because, as is being reported now that the story has moved off the front pages, the guy was a big fan of #KingMusk, the president-elect, and RFK, Jr. Domestic terrorism by "their" guys, apparently, is not the kind of news they want being told.
Image accessed on Reddit
But that part got left out of a lot of news coverage, pretty much all of it.
The U.S. press has already caved to the incoming administration. I have long subscribed to
The Guardian, and am now also following several
Canadian,
Australian, and
South African papers online. If I could read another language besides English well enough to follow the news, I'd draw from other places as well.
What on earth does this have to do with philanthropy? Have you donated* to a
nonprofit news site that you depend on? If in the USA, are you ready to protect PBS and NPR? Because once they destroy the independence of the media, they can commence the greatest grift ever attempted - the #billionaire suck on the U.S. federal government teat.
*If any of you philanthropy insiders are aware of a legal defense fund for these news sites, I'd love to know about it. If you are donating** to such a site, give a little more if you can - they are going to be sued by you know who.
**Despite what every piece of mail you received prior to December 31st said, that was not your last chance to donate. It was your last chance to itemize your donation on your 2024 taxes. Chances are, you don't itemize anyway. And, if you do, you can just itemize it for 2025.
