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donal brown

Meteorologist threatened for for reporting climate change facts

donal brown July 11, 2023

An Iowan meteorologist reporting on climate change on local broadcasts received several threatening emails and was told to cut back on his reporting to maintain ratings. Other meteorologists around the country have also been threatened and harassed. A small number of angry listeners can make it difficult for the meteorologists to report factual information on the weather essential to viewers like farmers. (VOX, July 9, 2023, by Hannah Fingerhut, Heather Hollingsworth and Summer Ballentine of

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Questions remain about federal court injunction on Biden contact with social media

donal brown July 11, 2023

Law professor Roy S. Gutterman in CNN, July 10, 2023, argues that the plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden failed to show that the government actually censored the speech of social media or that anyone suffered from harm. Besides that, the Supreme Court in two decisions held that prior restraint or censorship could be used in unusual circumstances where the government had “compelling interest to justify its actions.” It follows that the Biden administration was acting

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Petition asks FCC to deny license to Fox affiliate in Philadelphia

donal brown July 11, 2023

A petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission would deny the license renewal of Fox TV station in Philadelphia. The petition says that the station is not just a business but also a public trust: “It is crucial to our democracy that broadcasting remain a trusted source of news. A company that knowingly and repeatedly presents false news just to placate its core viewers undermines that sense of trust. The false news presented by Fox

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Supreme Court decision on website free speech gets mixed reviews

donal brown July 10, 2023

Megan McArdle in The Washington Post, June 30, 2023, argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis was correct given previous decisions against compelled speech. “What we can do is settle on a truce that allows each side a reasonable degree of freedom,” she writes, “Religious traditionalists shouldn’t be able to stop LGBTQ folks from getting married or accessing public accommodations such as housing or health care, but civil rights authorities shouldn’t

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Brave new world arrives with uncensored chatbots

donal brown July 6, 2023

A.I. chatbots developed by independent programmers or teams of volunteers have downloaded unrestricted chatbots and using them without the guardrails employed by social media and tech companies. Many are fearful that the new chatbots will turbo charge the threats of online child pornography, hate and lies. It is clear that the new developers are not interested in censoring themselves so what can be done given the vital role of free speech in the U.S.? (The

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