Attention to the Unseen

Politico reports: The Pentagon on Friday said reporters who cover the agency could access the building only if they agreed not to publish certain information, an unprecedented move that demands media outlets hand the department vast control over what they publish. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, in a Friday evening email, said journalists could continue to enter the Defense Department only if they sign a note saying they will not publish classified information or some less sensitive documents that are not…

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A free election can still result in authoritarian rule. Photo illustration: Douglas Rissing, iStock/Getty Images Plus By Karrin Vasby Anderson, Colorado State University In an authoritarian state, the leader engages in unconstitutional or undemocratic practices for the purpose of consolidating power. Key components of authoritarianism include rejecting democratic rules; denying the legitimacy of opponents; tolerating or encouraging political violence; and curtailing the civil liberties of opponents. Since he took office for a second time, President Donald Trump has sent National…

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Inae Oh writes: On Thursday, Stephen Colbert, the beloved, sharp-tongued comedian and host of the Late Show, announced that CBS was canceling the legendary franchise. “This is all just going away,” Colbert told the audience, as they responded with a wave of gasps and jeers. Online, the news was met with a similar blend of shock and anger. The move to cancel one of television’s last remaining crown jewels of broadcast programming came just days after Colbert publicly criticized CBS’s…

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Dan Froomkin writes: The sad fact is that there is nothing terribly out of character about the New York Times’s decision to publish a deceptive hit piece about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, based on hacked data supplied by a noted eugenicist to whom they granted anonymity. The newsroom will go to extreme lengths to achieve its primary missions — and one of them, most assuredly, is to take cheap shots at the left. You can see it almost…

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Natasha Lennard writes: You may have come across a common thought experiment that asks how the establishment U.S. media might cover a given domestic news event were it to occur in a maligned foreign country. The latest disturbing news from Donald Trump’s Justice Department, for example, might be framed as something like: “Trumpist regime targets opposition politician with fabricated charges for carrying out oversight.” Instead, the typical mainstream reports were muted on the Justice Department’s obscene decision Monday night to…

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The Bulwark reports: The Trump administration is sending aggressive signals about launching a potential federal investigation into the company that owns Politico and Business Insider as retaliation for an article scrutinizing Donald Trump Jr.’s business interests. In a Tuesday-night story little noticed outside of right-wing media, Breitbart reporter and Trump administration favorite Matthew Boyle wrote that the White House was furious at German media conglomerate Axel Springer. At issue was a Business Insider story titled “Don Jr. is the new…

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