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Media Bits and Bytes - January 28, 2020

The White House vs NPR - and more

The White House vs NPR

Defund NPR?

By Peter Wade
January 26, 2020
Rolling Stone

During all three years of his presidency, Trump has submitted budgets that would eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting, which includes NPR.

Michele Kelemen Gets a Boot

By Alison Durkee
January 28, 2020
Vanity Fair

The State Department removed her from the press pool for an upcoming trip to the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

How Mary Louise Kelly Turned the Tables on Pompeo

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By Stephanie Sarkis
January 25, 2020
Forbes

Even if you aren’t a journalist, Kelly shows how to handle manipulative people, regardless of where you encounter them.

The Case for Digital Public Infrastructure

By Ethan Zuckerman
January 17, 2020
Knight First Amendment Institute

Our responses to the challenges of the contemporary media ecosystem are marked by failures of imagination. So long as we are wedded to the idea that a few large companies will set the rules for speech and discussion online, we will constrain the solution space of possible interventions. 

Amazon Workers Speak Out on Climate

By Brian Kahn
January 26, 2020
Gizmodo

350 employees took to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice’s (AECJ) Medium page to lay out why Amazon should beef up its climate plan. It was an "I am Spartacus" moment.

When the Robots Take Over

By Sarah Jaffe
February/March 2020
Bookforum

The real threat to jobs comes from neither machines nor migrants but management.

Repressing Glenn Greenwald

By Mathew Ingram
January 22, 2020
Columbia Journalism Review

Brazilian prosecutors charged the Intercept writer with aiding a criminal conspiracy. Brazil’s attack on Greenwald mirrors the US case against Assange.

Copyright Crisis

By Cory Doctorow
January 21, 2020
Electronic Frontier Foundation

A system that is often promoted as protecting the interests of artists has increasingly sidelined creators' interests even as big media companies merge with one another, and with other kinds of companies (like ISPs) to form vertical monopolies that lock up the production, distribution and commercialization of creative work.

AP Crops a Photo

January 25, 2020
Al Jazeera

A Ugandan woman was cropped out of a group photo of climate activists - all European.

Sanders, Media, and Anti-Semitism

By Ari Paul
December 12, 2019
Jacobin

The mainstream press loves attacking Bernie Sanders for either being too Jewish or not Jewish enough. It's a cynical ploy to undermine his forthrightly left-wing campaign.

Dolly's Meme

By Emma Grey Ellis
January 24, 2020
Wired

Country star Dolly Parton's “LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Tinder” post speaks to people's desire to be what any platform needs them to be.