Newspapers are dying. Young people aren’t reading them. Predatory hedge funds are buying them up, laying off reporters, milking them for profits and cutting home delivery. The result is that democracy is losing its eyes and ears and maybe its conscience. That was a theme of Rick Goldsmith’s new documentary on the predatory consequences of
“The model is simple,” declared The Atlantic in its cover story for the November 2021 issue. “Gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices, and wring out as much cash as possible.” The author of the piece, Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins, was writing about Alden Global Capital LLC, the widely-feared buyout
Illinois became the first state to ban the removal of books from school and public libraries this summer. But in Missouri, school officials are taking titles off of the shelves now more than ever. The actions from the neighboring states illustrate the increasing power of organized activists and politicians to implement broad legislation. In some
A hearing that could either strengthen or upend the defamation case by two Georgia poll workers against The Gateway Pundit, the far-right website operated by St. Louisan Jim Hoft, is scheduled for July 13 in St. Louis Circuit Court. St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer is set to hear the plaintiffs’ request to dismiss a
The point of the First Amendment is to protect expression people hate – Nazi protesters in Skokie, anti-war protesters burning the American flag, KKK hooligans in an Ohio farmfield, Christian fundamentalists protesting the burial of American soldiers. Tolerance for the speech we despise is the lesson of 232 years of the First Amendment. Yet the
