As Musk and Trump continue to behave like kings, it’s incumbent upon news media to not just report on their actions, but put them in the proper context for the public to understand the threat level they represent; otherwise, we can’t respond appropriately.

That kind of reporting takes real bravery in the kind of moment we are in: Musk has already (falsely) called it a crime to reveal the names of those working for him at the agencies DOGE is targeting, which Wired and others have done. The Trump-installed DC attorney general has obsequiously promised Musk to go after those who identify his underlings—and to prosecute “anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people”.

While that might sound laughable, media outlets have already paid Trump handsome settlements to settle lawsuits that should have been seen as similarly laughable. When prominent news outlets won’t summon the courage to vigorously oppose this descent into autocracy, they are accessories to the coup. We must demand better from them, and support the outlets and journalists doing the critical work we as citizens require to defend our democracy.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    No, you need to fuck them over.

    Fuck Comcast, Fox, Viacom and Disney.

    Screw Google, Meta, Tiktok.

    Don’t demand anything. Adblock. Federate. Stop using their services, tell all your friends, shout it out, and then tell them. The only thing these entities understand is profit through engagement, and why it might be falling. They would run the country into the ground if it increases the quarter’s profits by 3% and gives all the C-Suites golden parachutes.

    …And that’s what bothers me about so many charitable/advocacy organizations. They don’t seem to understand how exclusively profit-driven so much news is now.

  • IninewCrow
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    23 hours ago

    Sleep walks into autocracy? … you mean marching lockstep alongside the fascist brigades (and frowning because they don’t fully support it, but they’ll still march in the parade anyway)

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      I keep seeing so many posts and headlines begging Democrats to do something to stop this, do people not fucking notice Republicans took majority in both chambers and even the SCOTUS?

      • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        13 hours ago

        The time for democrats to do something was during the last 4 years of biden’s admin, they decided bombing gaza was the priority. ooops.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          The DNC did a lot for the USA and they even did some good for Palestine as well by limiting Israel’s access to large bombs and actively negotiating between Israel, who are not controlled by the USA, and Hamas, who were armed and funded by Iran, for a ceasefire and hostage exchange. All of that good is undone now that Netanyahu’s favored candidate won the USA election and is pushing for all of Gaza to be cleansed of Palestinians.

          Good job, you really saved Palestine by telling Biden off. /s

          • LotrOrc@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            Limiting bombs? Yeah I’m sure the hundreds and thousands of 2000 pound bombs the US dropped on Gaza really made them thankful that they stopped them from using what, a nuke?

            More tons of explosives were used in Gaza than in Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined.

            Are you really blaming people who did not want to march over the bodies of 100s of their family to vote for a guy funding the genocide? Are you really sorry morally broken that you think voting for a geriatric genocidal monster was an acceptable solution rather than voting for a third party or refusing to vote?

            Just so you could point a year later and say “see trump doesn’t care” while ignoring the fact that not one person in the democratic establishment gave a fuck while 800,000 people were murdered?

            Youre an embarrassment. And voting for the dems lockstep for the last 12 years when they ran Hilary, then Biden, then Biden again while ignoring people like Bernie is exactly what got us into this position.

            You should be ashamed that you only cared when it started to effect you

          • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 hours ago

            Someone is clueless. My point wasnt about bidens actions in the middle east. It was about the Democrats lack literally everywhere else while simultaneously deciding that murdering Palestinians was the hill to die on. Enjoy your fascism.

            For everyone else: The democrats have spent decades not passing legislation that would fix shit so they could campaign on those problems while maintaining the status quo for oligarchs.

            This includes:

            • not passing legislation for abortion protections
            • not passing legislation for minimum wage increases. Harris literally used a non-elected official’s opinion as an excuse for her killing this legislation last time.
            • not passing legislation for single payer (or any substantial healthcare reform really)
            • not passing legislation for workers like paternity leave, vacation minimum, banning noncompetes.
            • not passing legislation that would hold employers accountable for abusing immigrants.

            The reasons Democrats are not doing anything atm is because they’re fine with whats currently happening.

            To recap: if the Democrats wanted to stop this the time to do so was over the last four years. Instead they wasted their time w/ corporate give aways to tech companies, breaking strikes, slow rolling Ukraine support, and then speed running gazian genocide.

            But yes its my fault no one likes the Democrats and support finally collapsed after literally decades of this nonsense.

  • alexc@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    It’s because they’re all part of the same system - Bezos owns WaPo FFS, and that’s assuming people read newspapers in the first place.

    It’s not sleepwalking if they’re actively enabling and always have been.

  • demonmittenhands@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    It’s wild to have this relative silence from the media on all this. Especially considering how things tend to go for the media in fascism.

  • zante@slrpnk.net
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    22 hours ago

    Weak sauce. The US press do not call out the US government. They keep you afraid of the boogie man, and use your personal values to divide you. You are not fixing this now.