First Amendment Blues Over Trump V.2

From Cowardly Anchors to Imaginary Cows to Rachel Maddow’s Paycut

The decision by co-anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, to extend an olive branch to incoming President Trump has brought to light discussions within the legacy media focused on the probability of administration attacks.

The Morning Joe co-hosts have defended their visit to Mar a Lago as legitimate journalism, paving the way for future reporting. Sources within the MSNBC organization have attributed fear of reprisals as the real motivator for the trip.

Regardless, the public hasn’t been kind to the Morning Joe program since the announcement. Two days after the announcement, ratings for the show’s overall audience fell by 15% and viewership in the 25-54 age bracket fell by 41%.

CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter, written by Brian Stelter, made media trepidation their focus on Friday. He came up with a list of ten things being discussed as possible retribution, ranging from legal threats and frivolous lawsuits, to nonprofit news outlets facing scrutiny over their tax exempt status, and blocking corporate mergers by media companies.

Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee and President-elect Trump’s daughter in law, told the Washington Post that people shouldn’t be afraid of his return to power.

• “Well, let me just first say that anyone who is afraid right now, you should not be afraid. There was a lot of talk and a lot of really fearmongering, I think, that happened throughout the course of this campaign, and it really has been applied directly to Donald Trump

Here’s the thing; when legacy media pundits mention threats to the First Amendment, they’re always speaking about their own-type media.

If there’s one thing the past election showed, it’s that the old ways of communicating about current events and expressing opinions just aren’t as powerful as they used to be. 

What should be included in First Amendment discussion are ALL the ways US citizens are informed and influenced. That means podcasts, newsletters, social media, and public informational gatherings. 

Among young people ages 19-29, 37% say they get news via social media. Podcasts are huge. Short videos convey compelling messages. YouTube is more useful than the New York Times for basic understanding. Netflix documentaries explore our worlds and the people in them.

It’s not all about politics or current events. Because I’m a “foodie,” I take-in lots of content via YouTube vids, but have found Netflix ‘Dinner Time Live with David Chang” to be both amusing and informative.

Mooving Back Back to the First Amendment

I want to cite DevinNunesCow and DevinNunesMom, political parody Twitter accounts that originated with making fun of a California Congressman's campaign claim of being a dairy farmer. 

Defamation lawsuits filed by the Congressman during the first Trump administration (and boosted by the then-president) seeking to uncover the identity or identities of the person behind the account are still ongoing five years later.

Here’s the some of the evidence:

• "Devin Nunes’ cow has made, published and republished hundreds of false and defamatory statements of and concerning Nunes, including the following: Nunes is a ‘treasonous cowpoke.’”

• “'Devin’s boots are full of manure. He’s udder-ly worthless and its pasture time to move him to prison.' ”

• DevinNunesMom “falsely stated that Nunes was ‘voted ‘Most Likely to Commit Treason’ in high school.’ ”

• @DevinNunesMom “falsely claimed that Nunes would ‘probably see an indictment before 2020.’ ”

There was never any possibility of Rep. Nunes would get any part of the $250 million he sought in damages; the point of the lawsuit was to create a financial burden via legal charges.

Aaron Blake at the Washington Post:

• So feel free to chuckle about the spectacle of Devin Nunes suing “Devin Nunes’ cow” — especially given Nunes’s past opposition to “frivolous lawsuits” — but know that this most likely isn’t about his purported cow or what it said. Nunes is telegraphing an expansive effort to go after people who hurt Republicans with their public discourse. Its potential impact, not so much legally as from personal behavioral standpoint, shouldn’t be so casually dismissed.

And more to the point, as far as the incoming Trump administration is concerned, are the views of Brendan Carr, Project 2025’s author on the Federal Communications Commission, who also happens to be the nominee for the next Chair of the FCC.

Truth on the Market’s Eric Fruits explains:

• To “rein in” these companies, Carr’s Project 2025 chapter concludes the FCC should reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Act. He advocates for narrowing the scope of Section 230, which shields online platforms from liability for content that users post. The chapter argues that the current broad interpretation of Section 230 allows platforms to censor conservative viewpoints with impunity while maintaining legal protection. Specifically, Carr proposes clarifying that Section 230(c)(1) applies only when platforms refrain from removing user-generated content and that the more limited protections of Section 230(c)(2) apply when platforms restrict access to such material. 

• Carr also suggests distinguishing more clearly between distributor and publisher liability. The chapter argues that Section 230 does not eliminate distributor liability or equate distributor liability with publisher liability. 

Suffice it to say, the premise of Project 2025’s plans on the FCC is that conservatives are being censored by social media.

Don’t get me wrong here, there’s plenty wrong with Section 230 of the Communications Act. It was, by and large, a gift to monopolist corporations, such that HP can shut down (brick) a printer if its owner dies and doesn’t reorder HP brand ink cartridges within a certain timeframe. As executor of my Mom’s estate, I can say I’ve seen that bit of garbage policy in action.

Things are changing rapidly in the non-legacy media world. 

When Elon Musk bought Twitter (Now X) he undid the restrictions placed on people for placing demeaning (racist) and threatening content. The place is now a cesspool, filled with huckster ads and hate speech. BlueSky, a similarly functional social media with actual moderation and behavior boundaries, has been adding as many as a million users daily since the election, and I expect they’ll be the early targets for the Trump regime.

Google  –which controls speech via what shows up in searches– has been found guilty of being a monopoly whose actions were restraining trade. The proposed settlement, which we as consumers won’t see until appeals run out in 2027 or 2028, would open up the market for new search engines along with altering the ways our data gets used. (I suspect Apple, which pays $20 billion annually in tribute to enable searches, will be the first out of the gate in response)

There are so many newish video-based channels out there that it’s hard to predict the future, but I can assure you that they will change the ways we gather and process information.

***

Getting back to legacy media, Comcast has announced their spinning off much of the broadcast cable portfolio into a separate company. 

Comcast will continue to hold on to NBC broadcast network, along with the Universal film and television studios, Universal Studios theme parks, local TV stations, and the streaming service Peacock, which now has 36 million subscribers. They’ll hang on to one cable franchise, Bravo and its “Real Housewives” franchises. 

The as yet unnamed spinoff company will be composed of the remainder of the cable channels, including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, Syfy, E! and the Golf Channel. Digital properties including Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango and SportsEngine are also included in the deal.

Despite those spinoff assets having $7 billion in cash flow last year, many observers are seeing a bleak future for companies using cable TV to distribute content.

Meg James:

• Millions of consumers have switched to streaming platforms that offer fewer commercials, or none at all, and lower subscription prices. In the first six months of the year, an additional 4 million customer homes dropped pay TV, according to a recent MoffettNathanson report.

• That contributed to a 30% decline since 2012, when there were more than 100 million pay-TV homes in the U.S.

• Consumers also can cancel streaming services with a click of a button — without haggling with a customer service representative at a pay-TV company call center.

How does this influence liberal/progressive viewers you might ask? Notice that MSNBC would no longer be connected to its parent company’s news teams. They’ll probably have to rebrand, since neither of its founders are involved any more. 

And the breakup is likely connected to a 50% reduction in pay in Rachel Maddow’s just announced five year contract.

Via Huffpost:

• Executives told the outlet that Maddow has been “ratings Viagra” for MSNBC and the network “needed to keep her” amid an uncertain time.

• “No one else can do what she does. You can’t build a brand like it overnight,” one unnamed executive told The Ankler.

Over on the CBS side of the business, there is concern about Brendan Carr using the powers of the FCC to intervene in deal making.

• During the election, he jumped on social media when Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the Nov. 2 episode of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” to point out that the network also owed an invitation to Trump under the FCC’s equal time provision.

• NBC obliged, giving Trump time at the end of a NASCAR race and after “Sunday Night Football.” (Carr also received a public note from NBC parent Comcast congratulating him on his nomination.)

• Carr got the industry’s attention again Tuesday when he told Fox News that his recommendation on the Paramount Global merger with Skydance Media would consider recent accusations from Trump’s camp that CBS News edited its “60 Minutes” interview with Harris to make her sound more coherent.

Also….

The Wall Street Journal has “laid off” politics editor Ben Pershing. Dan Eggen, senior politics editor at the Washington Post, is departing January 1. A social media post says Eggen was “crushed” by the news.

Finally, the activist side of the communications possibilities for the next four years.

On Thursday, House Republicans and 15 Democrats passed legislation giving the Treasury Department the power to strip nonprofit news organizations, advocacy groups, and universities of their tax-exempt status. The bill will have to pass the Senate to be signed into law, and I doubt that will happen. But… it can and will be re-introduced next year.

The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act was proposed to prevent U.S. nonprofits from supporting groups like Hamas after widespread protests over Israel’s invasion of Gaza. 

Nicknamed the “nonprofit killer,” it gives the president unprecedented authority to go after political opponents.

Lever News looked at the larger picture through the lens of climate activist advocacy:

• Vice President-elect JD Vance has previously supported revoking the tax-exempt status of liberal institutions. “We should eliminate all of the special privileges that exist for our nonprofit and foundation class,” he said at a 2021 conference. Later that year, he told Tucker Carlson on Fox News, “We are actively subsidizing the people who are destroying this country,” calling groups like the Ford Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to social justice, “a cancer.”

• The “nonprofit killer” bill is part of a larger Republican effort to attack what many on the right call “woke capitalism,” including environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, embrace more diverse workforces, and other efforts. So far this year, conservative lawmakers and their allies have authored legislation that would rollback shareholder rights seeking to hold corporations accountable, leaned on the Supreme Court to gut environmental law, and used dark money donations to help fuel their agenda.

• In the future, as the recent House Committee report notes, subversive activities like “public outreach” or “public education” will “demand rigorous scrutiny and meticulous oversight.

The coming repression won’t necessarily be government-based, as San Diego YIMBYs found out recently when they were forced to relocate a Policy Committee Meeting and presentation due to threats of disruption, which they attributed to “San Diegans for Responsible Planning and allied groups.”

The YIMBYs said in a press release that “Unable to make their case against building more homes, they’ve resorted to tactics aimed at disrupting dialogue. They’re now celebrating the shutdown as a ‘victory.’”

Obviously there are unanswered questions here. I have unsuccessfully sought more details, hoping for clarity on whether this NIMBY action was a first amendment protected protest or an “Unwoke Mob.” 

Were they energized by the MAGA win? Were they angered that they lost at the local ballot box? (PS: I can’t call you because I lost my vocal cords to cancer.)

Dingus of the Week: Nancy Mace by Liz at Men Yell At Me

• I am beginning to think that Mace thinks the T in LGBTQ stands for “tinkle.” Maybe she thinks it stands for toilet paper? What it actually stands for is “trans,” as in the people she is deliberately targeting with these bills.

• Listen, I don’t know if Nancy Mace has ever peed before. Judging by the look on her face, she definitely hasn’t pooped in a while. But let me explain how women’s bathrooms work. We all walk into the bathroom at the same time, strip completely naked, do some naked yoga, then wash our hands, don our clothes, and leave. Real women don’t defecate or urinate, so there is none of that happening there. Jesus doesn’t like it. But naked hot yoga? Oh, for sure.

• Just kidding. The reality is there are just stalls with walls. No one sees anyone unless you lie down on the floor. And if you are lying down on the floor of a public restroom, you have problems beyond what any law of Congress or God can fix.

***

AOC Explains Why MTG Working With Musk and Ramaswamy Is Actually Good by Edith Olmsted at The New Republic

• The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that it would create a new subcommittee expressly for the purpose of working with the Department of Government Efficiency, the meme-based advisory group led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, that plans to slash trillions of dollars’ worth of essential government services for the purpose of eradicating the administrative state and racking up new government contracts to replace it. Greene is reportedly set to head the new subcommittee, and Ocasio-Cortez managed to find the silver lining.

• “This is good, actually. She barely shows up and doesn’t do the reading,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X Thursday. “To borrow a phrase I saw elsewhere, it’s like giving someone an unplugged controller.”

• “Absolutely dying at those two now getting assigned the ‘privilege’ of ‘working’ with MTG,” she wrote in a separate post. “That is actually hilarious. Enjoy, fellas! Very prestigious post you have there.”

***

A Quick Take by Brian Kaylor, editor of Word&Way
(Editor’s Note: There will be a quiz later on this)

• A Catholic church in Lucerne, Switzerland, has a new confessional booth option. An AI Jesus.

• In news that unfortunately didn’t come from The Onion, the church is encouraging people to come and talk with AI Jesus and ask questions. On a screen, people can even see what looks like a White man with long hair looking back through a confessional grid. They call it “Deus in machina” (God in machine).

• “I was surprised, it was so easy, and though it’s a machine, it gave me so much advice,” one person told a reporter after talking with the AI Jesus.