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Working people throughout the globe face attack on their basic economic and social rights and the need to tell the stories of all working people is crucial
Trump picks Brendan Carr, who laid out agenda in Project 2025, as FCC chairman
Carr vowed to take on “censorship” by Big Tech companies in Project 2025, which laid out a conservative agenda for Donald Trump’s second term.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/11/17/fcc-transition-brendan-carr/
Brendan Carr at a House hearing in 2022. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Eva Dou and Cristiano Lima-Strong
Updated November 17, 2024 at 10:38 p.m. EST|Published November 17, 2024 at 8:13 p.m. EST
President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday he was naming Brendan Carr as the next Federal Communications Commission chairman, positioning the regulatory agency to do battle against social media companies and TV broadcasters that Republicans portray as too liberal.
Carr, 45, the senior Republican among the FCC’s five commissioners, has vowed in recent days to take on what he called a “censorship cartel” including Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Earlier this year, he laid out an aggressive agenda for the FCC in Project 2025, a conservative proposal for Trump’s second term developed by the Heritage Foundation. Carr has been a vocal supporter of billionaire Elon Musk and an advocate of tougher restrictions on China.
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement Sunday evening. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”
Carr said Sunday night on X that he was “humbled and honored” to serve in the position, and that he would seek to “dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”
Follow live updates on the transition to Trump’s second presidency. We’re tracking the people Trump has picked or is considering to fill his Cabinet and key positions in his administration.
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The FCC, which regulates TV and radio broadcasting, telephone and internet service providers, as well as satellites, is an independent agency, but it has pursued a more Democratic agenda during the Biden administration, under the leadership of Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat.
Carr began making moves even before he was named to take charge under the incoming Trump administration. On Wednesday, he sent a letter to Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, warning that he believed they were improperly censoring some viewpoints. He wrote that the new Trump administration may review their companies’ activities.
“Americans have lived through an unprecedented surge in censorship,” he wrote. “Your companies played significant roles in this improper conduct.”
Carr has also indicated that he would scrutinize TV broadcasters in instances that Republicans view as political bias, through the narrow legal authority that the FCC has over such issues. When Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on “Saturday Night Live” days before the election, Carr blasted NBC for trying to “evade” an FCC rule requiring networks to give candidates equal time. NBC later said it gave Trump a commensurate slot following a NASCAR race.
Carr’s ascent also bodes well for the business prospects of Musk, the world’s richest man, with the two cultivating a closer relationship in recent months. Carr has visited SpaceX facilities multiple times this year, including trekking to southern Texas last month to witness SpaceX’s Starship rocket booster float back to Earth in a historic landing.
Musk, who after going all-in on Trump’s campaign has been playing a central role in assembling and vetting key figures in his new administration, on Sunday praised Carr’s plans to take on the “censorship cartel,” posting “based” on X, a slang term meaning approval.
Pending decisions before the FCC include whether to allow Musk’s Starlink satellites to orbit closer to Earth, which would make its internet service speedier and a fiercer competitor to traditional broadband providers. Carr has advocated for Starlink to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in FCC grants. Musk’s social media platform X also stands to benefit from Carr’s vow to scrutinize its rival internet giants such as Facebook and Google.
“His deregulatory views and his affection for Elon Musk are well-known. I expect few surprises,” said Andrew Schwartzman, a veteran telecommunications lawyer.
Trump picks Brendan Carr as FCC chairman
www.washingtonpost.com
Carr vowed to take on “censorship” by Big Tech companies in Project 2025, which laid out a conservative agenda for Donald Trump’s second term.
50 years after free press declaration, dismissed Korean journalists take to streets again
Journalists formerly of the Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo denounced the current administration’s attempts to control the free press
english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1164359.html
Posted on : 2024-10-25 16:43 KST Modified on : 2024-10-25 16:43 KST
Half a century ago, on Oct. 24, 1974, journalists from the Dong-A Ilbo and 30 other news organizations around Korea declared their commitment to a free press, in opposition to the censorship of the press by the Yushin dictatorship of Park Chung-hee. On Thursday, a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the free press declaration was held at the Korean Press Center in Seoul.
The 50th anniversary ceremony was jointly organized by the Dong-A Committee for Free Press and the Chosun Committee for Free Press, groups made up of reporters dismissed from these two major Korean daily newspapers, and by media and civic groups including the National Union of Media Workers and the Citizens’ Coalition for Democratic Media.
The groups marched past the offices of the Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo in Seoul’s Jongno District to the Korea Press Center, while chanting slogans about the realization of a free press and condemning the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s attempts to bend the free press to its will.
Members of committees for the struggle to safeguard a free press at the Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo and other civic groups march past the headquarters of Chosun Ilbo. (Jung Yong-il_Hankyoreh).jpeg
Members of committees for the struggle to safeguard a free press at the Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo and other civic groups march past the headquarters of Chosun Ilbo. (Jung Yong-il/Hankyoreh)
“The political forces that directly controlled the press with guns and swords in hand 50 years ago are now stifling the activities of the free press using prosecutors and their arbitrary raids and issuance of warrants,” the committees said in a joint statement.
“Public broadcasting — what could rightly be called the bridgehead for the formation of a healthy public forum in our society — faces pressure from all sides. This pressure is an attempt to bring public broadcasting to ruin,” the statement went on.
At 9 am on Oct. 24, 1974, 180 Dong-A Ilbo journalists gathered in their newsroom to adopt the free press declaration. (Hankyoreh file photo)
[Photo] 50 years after free press declaration, dismissed Korean journalists take to streets again
english.hani.co.kr
Journalists formerly of the Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo denounced the current administration’s attempts to control the free press
NWU Stands Unrelentingly with Gazan Journalists
nwu.org/nwu-statement-oct24/
by National Writers Union, October 10, 2024
“Every day that this war goes on, our commitment to Palestinian journalists and PJS grows stronger. They will not surrender and neither will we.”
The National Writers Union (NWU) unequivocally condemns Israel’s ongoing, targeted murder of journalists. We are exasperated, incensed, and heartbroken over this massacre, with impunity, of our fellow journalists. An attack on one journalist is an attack on all of us, and we implore all newsrooms and unions to treat these murders as they would the murder of colleagues at home. We reiterate our demand for an immediate arms embargo against Israel, and reject the harassment of journalists worldwide for covering and speaking out about Palestinians.
In just the past week, six more Palestinian media workers have been killed or gravely injured:
On October 6, an Israeli air strike killed 19-year-old Hassan Hamad, a freelance TV reporter, at his home in the Jabalia refugee camp in Northern Gaza, after he was reportedly threatened by an Israeli officer via WhatsApp.
On October 7, Israeli forces shot another cameraman, Ali Al-Attar; he remains in critical condition.
On October 9, Israeli snipers shot Fadi Al-Wahidi during a raid of Jabalia Refugee Camp; he was critically injured. Israeli warplanes targeted and killed Al Aqsa TV photojournalist Mohammed Al-Tanani, and injured his colleague, Tamar Lubbad, in North Gaza. The Israeli military also killed Omar Al-Balaawi, a journalist and school teacher.
Since October 7, 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found that Israeli forces have killed at least 128 media workers, all but five of them Palestinian. In at least five cases, the deaths were a result of intentional attacks. Our sibling union, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), counts more than 150 slain journalists, comprising 10 percent of the Palestinian press corps, and some 200 wounded.
PJS has documented Israel’s targeting of journalists’ workplaces and homes, including surgical air strikes that have killed journalists’ entire families. Israeli forces admitted to killing Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi, but smeared these reporters as “terrorists” to justify their deaths.
More than 100 Palestinian journalists are in Israeli prisons, in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, according to PJS. Most have been held on nebulous charges or no charge at all.
“The systematic crimes against journalists have ranged from killing those who bear witness to the truth, to imprisoning and intimidating them,” said Nasser Abu Bakr, president of PJS.“Even more devastatingly, their homes have been destroyed, their families killed, and their media institutions targeted.”
All this is happening against the backdrop of grave media censorship, with the Israeli government continuing to bar international press from accessing the region, repeatedly shutting down the internet, and raiding and shuttering offices. Meanwhile, Western outlets have been muted in condemning these crimes against our colleagues and our profession.
“While Palestinian journalists are being silenced with bullets, many US journalists are being silenced by firings, intimidation, fear, and self-censorship,” said NWU president Larry Goldbetter. “Every day that this war goes on, our commitment to Palestinian journalists and PJS grows stronger. They will not surrender and neither will we.”
In May, NWU released a report that analyzed 44 cases of retaliation since October 7, 2023, affecting more than 100 people. We found that journalists of color and particularly those of Muslim and Arab descent were disproportionately impacted.
“When management at media organizations keep their employees in the West from critically covering the Israeli government, highlighting extreme violence on social media, or advocating for the protection of their colleagues, they contribute to the escalating violence that is materially affecting the most vulnerable media workers in Gaza,” the report says. “They also risk undermining several core journalistic imperatives—including the imperative to minimize harm. In other words, retaliation is just as much a media ethics issue as it is a labor issue.”
We again call on our colleagues in newsrooms and unions across the US to demand an end to these murders and an end to the arming of Israel.
www.ifj.org/media-centre/newsletters/detail/global-solidarity-12-months-standing-with-gazas-journ…
Global solidarity: 12 months standing with Gaza’s journalists / IFJ
www.ifj.org
One year on from the war in Gaza, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) looks back at the bloodiest period in the history of journalism – at least 138 journalists dead in Palestine, Isra…
NWU Stands Unrelentingly with Gazan Journalists
nwu.org/nwu-statement-oct24/
by National Writers Union, October 10, 2024
“Every day that this war goes on, our commitment to Palestinian journalists and PJS grows stronger. They will not surrender and neither will we.”
The National Writers Union (NWU) unequivocally condemns Israel’s ongoing, targeted murder of journalists. We are exasperated, incensed, and heartbroken over this massacre, with impunity, of our fellow journalists. An attack on one journalist is an attack on all of us, and we implore all newsrooms and unions to treat these murders as they would the murder of colleagues at home. We reiterate our demand for an immediate arms embargo against Israel, and reject the harassment of journalists worldwide for covering and speaking out about Palestinians.
In just the past week, six more Palestinian media workers have been killed or gravely injured:
On October 6, an Israeli air strike killed 19-year-old Hassan Hamad, a freelance TV reporter, at his home in the Jabalia refugee camp in Northern Gaza, after he was reportedly threatened by an Israeli officer via WhatsApp.
On October 7, Israeli forces shot another cameraman, Ali Al-Attar; he remains in critical condition.
On October 9, Israeli snipers shot Fadi Al-Wahidi during a raid of Jabalia Refugee Camp; he was critically injured. Israeli warplanes targeted and killed Al Aqsa TV photojournalist Mohammed Al-Tanani, and injured his colleague, Tamar Lubbad, in North Gaza. The Israeli military also killed Omar Al-Balaawi, a journalist and school teacher.
Since October 7, 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found that Israeli forces have killed at least 128 media workers, all but five of them Palestinian. In at least five cases, the deaths were a result of intentional attacks. Our sibling union, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), counts more than 150 slain journalists, comprising 10 percent of the Palestinian press corps, and some 200 wounded.
PJS has documented Israel’s targeting of journalists’ workplaces and homes, including surgical air strikes that have killed journalists’ entire families. Israeli forces admitted to killing Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi, but smeared these reporters as “terrorists” to justify their deaths.
More than 100 Palestinian journalists are in Israeli prisons, in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, according to PJS. Most have been held on nebulous charges or no charge at all.
“The systematic crimes against journalists have ranged from killing those who bear witness to the truth, to imprisoning and intimidating them,” said Nasser Abu Bakr, president of PJS.“Even more devastatingly, their homes have been destroyed, their families killed, and their media institutions targeted.”
All this is happening against the backdrop of grave media censorship, with the Israeli government continuing to bar international press from accessing the region, repeatedly shutting down the internet, and raiding and shuttering offices. Meanwhile, Western outlets have been muted in condemning these crimes against our colleagues and our profession.
“While Palestinian journalists are being silenced with bullets, many US journalists are being silenced by firings, intimidation, fear, and self-censorship,” said NWU president Larry Goldbetter. “Every day that this war goes on, our commitment to Palestinian journalists and PJS grows stronger. They will not surrender and neither will we.”
In May, NWU released a report that analyzed 44 cases of retaliation since October 7, 2023, affecting more than 100 people. We found that journalists of color and particularly those of Muslim and Arab descent were disproportionately impacted.
“When management at media organizations keep their employees in the West from critically covering the Israeli government, highlighting extreme violence on social media, or advocating for the protection of their colleagues, they contribute to the escalating violence that is materially affecting the most vulnerable media workers in Gaza,” the report says. “They also risk undermining several core journalistic imperatives—including the imperative to minimize harm. In other words, retaliation is just as much a media ethics issue as it is a labor issue.”
We again call on our colleagues in newsrooms and unions across the US to demand an end to these murders and an end to the arming of Israel.
John Kerry's call for misinformation censorship should apply to the government's captured news organizations who report only their side.
ilaunion.org
ILA News USMX Continues Weak Publicity Campaign Against ILA With “Unfair Labor Practices” Suit; Foreign Shipping Companies Exploiting American Longshoremen is Unfair Labor Practice: ILA USMX Conti…
Southern California News Group NG journalists vote to authorize strike
www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-09-23/southern-california-news-group-strike-authorization-vot…
A man holding a large white banner that says, "Alden: The Public Deserves to Know."
Stephen Linder of the Denver Post attends a rally against the paper’s ownership group, Alden Global Capital. Journalists at Southern California News Group, which is owned by Alden Global Capital, have voted to authorize a strike. (David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
By Christi Carras
Staff Writer
Sept. 23, 2024 4:57 PM PT
Journalists employed by Southern California News Group, including the Orange County Register and L.A. Daily News, have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, their union announced Monday.
The SCNG union said that its members granted their leadership the authority to call an open-ended walkout by a vote of 94%. More than 90% of 125 unionized journalists— including reporters and photographers, as well as digital, social media and production staffers — spanning 11 SCNG newsrooms participated in the strike authorization vote, according to the union.
The Southern California News Group union belongs to the Media Guild of the West, which also represents journalists at the Los Angeles Times.
This California city lost its daily newspapers. It faces a crisis over what comes next
The labor organization has accused SCNG — a subsidiary of MediaNews Group, which is owned by Alden Global Capital — of engaging in unfair labor practices, stalling contract negotiations and underpaying its employees, alleging that many SCNG reporters haven’t received a raise in more than a decade.
Representatives for SCNG and MediaNews Group did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment.
“This vote should serve as a wakeup call for management who for more than 2½ years of bargaining has failed to offer acceptable wages and benefits,” Sean Emery, a SCNG reporter and guild unit chair, said in a statement.
“The patience of our members is wearing thin. They are tired of struggling to survive on low wages that have remained stagnant for years.”
In addition to the Register and Daily News, SCNG publications include Riverside’s Press-Enterprise, the San Bernardino Sun, Torrance’s Daily Breeze, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Long Beach’s Press-Telegram, the Pasadena Star-News, Redlands Daily Facts, the Whittier Daily News and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
The company’s journalists voted to unionize under the Media Guild of the West in 2021 and have been bargaining for a new contract for two years. If the union calls a strike, it would mark the first open-ended work stoppage by employees at a newsroom belonging to Alden Global Capital, the union said.
In December, SCNG staffers staged a one-day walkout to protest the company’s alleged stalling tactics and unfair labor practices.
Southern California News Group journalists vote to authorize strike
www.latimes.com
Journalists employed by Southern California News Group have voted 94% in favor of authorizing a strike, according to their union.
PALESTINE IS STILL THE ISSUE: JOHN PILGER"S FILMS AND ARTICLES RELATING TO THE ONGOING DESTRUCTION OF GAZA IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
johnpilger.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFPNEJleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHXCnqEbgjXKxmvWYO0K99Gjg3IBEmZ-fXAhZcuZx6RSP…
johnpilger.com
A celebration of the life and legacy of John Pilger, whose journalism and films took on power, uncovered hidden agendas and gave voice to the voiceless across the world.
On Pacifica CRD: Labor Day Special: Black Workers Poised to Sue Tesla over Racism; Labor Historian Robert Ovetz on Nonprofits and the US Class Struggle; Did the National Transportation Safety Board Cover Up Norfolk Southern’s Criminal Liability in E. Palestine Derailment?
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2024/09/02/labor-day-special-black-workers-poised-to-sue-tesla-ove…](capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2024/09/02/labor-day-special-black-workers-poised-to-sue-tesla-ove…
By Capitalism, Race & Democracy – September 2, 2024
Ten thousand Black workers at Elon Musk’s Fremont Tesla auto factory have won the right to sue Musk and Tesla for systemic racism and harassment on the job. Host Steve Zeltzer spoke with Bryan Schwartz who is the Oakland lawyer representing this class action suit against Musk and his company Tesla in Fremont.
***
In a wide-ranging discussion of nonprofits, privatization, and the history of the struggle between American workers, capitalists, and their government, labor historian and political scientist Professor Robert Ovetz spoke to Pacifica’s Thomas O’Rourke.
***
In February of last year the major Norfolk Southern train derailment took place in East Palestine, Ohio. The company ignited vinyl chloride to get the trains going quickly after the derailment. Now the National Transportation Safety Board has issued a 212-page report on the incident. Retired Iowa Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Legislative Rep Jeff Kurtz, who is also a health and safety expert, has looked at this report and discovered that the NTSB failed to report on the braking issues that contributed to the derailment. Kurtz has said that Norfolk Southern urged engineers not to use air brakes in order to save money on train brakes. Kurtz talked with Pacifica about this incident and why it could have been avoided.
Residents and railway workers will be going to the EPA and Department of Transportation on October 4 in Washington DC to demand that residents of East Palestine get healthcare and that safety rules be enforced to stop future derailments, as there have been over 1500 more since the February 2023 catastrophe. The action is sponsored by Justice For East Palestine Residents and Workers.
***
Thousands of students, faculty and workers are returning to campuses after the summer break. They continue to fight for an end to the genocide in Gaza and divestment from companies that provide military weapons to Israel. On August 29, 2024, at San Francisco State University, Rami Ibrahim of the Palestine Youth Movement spoke at a rally of students and faculty and raised the issue of workers and the cost of the war and genocide in Palestine and the US.
And that concludes today’s edition of Capitalism, Race & Democracy. We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Thomas O’Rourke, Polina Vasiliev and Steve Zeltzer.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening!
Music:
Mississippi Fred McDowell – You gotta move
Mike Stout, “Stand up for East Palestine”
War on the Workers by Anne Feeney