Events

Current Activites of FCM and in the past

Freedom of Press or Freedom to Surveil?

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Article in TechXplore by Jared Wadley, 1/7/25

Headline:  “Q&A: TikTok’s case could set a precedent for social media app bans”

“The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this week about a pending ban on social media app TikTok, an outcome of a law signed by President Biden last April that would take effect Jan. 19.

“Oliver Haimson, assistant professor of information at the University of Michigan, said the stakes are high not only for China-based owner ByteDance to sell the app—which the company says violates First Amendment rights—but also for the reported 170 million TikTok users in the United States. The federal government has said the app threatens national security.”

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-01-qa-tiktok-case-social-media.html

Social Media Facts Aren’t Real

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Article in The Guardian by Blake Montgomery, 1/7/25

Headline:  “Why did Mark Zuckerberg end Facebook and Instagram’s factchecking program?”

Subhead:  “The social media giant enters a more partisan political era as its CEO pursues Donald Trump’s approval”

Meta is shifting to the right, following the prevailing political winds blowing through the United States. A more partisan era now looms for the social media giant and its corporate leaders, though Mark Zuckerberg himself has few personal politics other than ambition.

“On Tuesday morning, Meta disbanded Facebook and Instagram’s third-party factchecking program. The company will also recommend more political content across its social networks.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/07/why-did-mark-zuckerberg-end-facebook-instagram-fact-checking

No Media-Boss Criticism Allowed

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Censored cartoon by Ann Telnaes

 

On this coming anniversary of the Charlie Hedbo cartoonist assassination, another cartoonist is censored.

Article in The Guardian by Ramon Antonio Vargas, 1/4/25

Headline:  “Washington Post cartoonist resigns over paper’s refusal to publish cartoon critical of Jeff Bezos”

Subhead:  “Pulitzer prize winner Ann Telnaes had drawn a cartoon of the paper’s owner kneeling before Donald Trump”

“The Washington Post’s Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from her position at the newspaper after its refusal to publish a satirical cartoon depicting the outlet’s owner, Jeff Bezos – along with other media and technology barons – kneeling before Donald Trump as he gears up for his second US presidency.

“ ‘I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations – and some differences – about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at,’ Telnaes wrote on Friday in an online post on the Substack platform detailing her decision to quit. ‘Until now.’ ”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jan/04/washington-post-cartoonist-resigns-jeff-bezos

 

Another Jailed Journalist

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Article in the New York Times by Emma Bubola, 12/27/24

Headline:  “Italian Journalist Is Detained While Reporting in Iran”

Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on Dec. 19, but news of her detention only became public on Friday. The reason for the arrest of Ms. Sala, a well-known reporter, has not been made public.

“A prominent Italian journalist was arrested in Iran and jailed in the country’s infamous Evin prison after spending days reporting in Tehran, Italian officials said.

Italy’s foreign ministry said Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on Dec. 19, but news of her arrest and detention only became public on Friday. The reason for the arrest of Ms. Sala, one of Italy’s most renowned foreign correspondents, has not yet been made public.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/world/middleeast/cecilia-sala-italian-journalist-arrested-iran.html

Media Hiding Under Desks?

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Article in The Washington Post by Jennifer Rubin, 12/20/24

Headline:  “Courage is in short supply among Democrats and the media”

“. . . Most problematic to me are the troubling decisions of legacy media owners. We saw the pattern starting with The Post’s and the Los Angeles Times’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate, followed by MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s trek to Mar-a-Lago and then the spectacle of legacy and new media owners (including Post owner Jeff Bezos) kicking in $1 million each for the Trump inauguration. The widely panned ABC News defamation settlement might have been the worst instance of capitulation in the history of major defamation litigation. (In a whole other category of awful: the new, patently absurd L.A. Times “bias meter,” a sort of trigger warning for readers who cannot figure out which way a Times opinion columnist leans, and the constant owner-meddling.”

“Decisions like these don’t mollify Trump; they invite further abuse. . .”

“. . . The sort of behavior we have witnessed from many legacy outlets will not help win back audiences who have lost faith in them. (Progressives are horrified; right-wingers will never patronize them.)”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/20/trump-democrats-media-courage/

Media Blackout Soon?

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Article in Daily Kos by Alan Singerm 12/19/24

Headline:  “Could Trump Silence the Media?”

“With the Presidency, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court controlled by rightwing Republicans, the fundamental mechanism embedded in the Constitution by its authors, checks and balances that can constrain extremists and can control a radical President, may no longer operate.”

“. . . Trump and his allies are also launching legal attacks on the media charging it with misrepresentation and bias in campaigns to silence criticism.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/19/2292750/-Could-Trump-Silence-the-Media?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Media Obsequiousness

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Article in Daily Kos by Max Burns, 12/16/24

Headline:  “What the Media Missed: DeSantis might defy Trump—but senators won’t”

“This was the week that the wealthy and powerful bent the knee to Donald Trump. Tech CEOs including Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took their turns at Mar-a-Lago wining, dining, and dropping off million-dollar checks for Trump’s slush fund of an inaugural committee.

“The media also accelerated its own surrender to Trump’s authoritarian future. On Saturday, ABC News announced its bizarre decision to settle a defamation suit filed by Trump to the tune of a $15 million payout and a formal apology. The decision was even stranger given the fact that Trump has failed in all of his previous media defamation lawsuits—leading critics to argue that ABC News prematurely surrendered in order to avoid Trump’s presidential wrath.

“Most of that news flew right by the cable news media this weekend, which dedicated more air time to Elon Musk’s mom than to the creeping autocracy down at Mar-a-Lago”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/16/2292169/-What-the-Media-Missed-DeSantis-might-defy-Trump-but-senators-won-t?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_6&pm_medium=web