donal brown

California police agencies are violating Penal Code Section 409.7 with their arrests of reporters and photojournalists during recent campus protests. The code prohibits police from interfering with reporters during a protest and from citing reporters for failing to disperse and allows reporters to enter closed areas around a protest. (Freedom of the Press Foundation, May 16, 2024, by Caitlin Vogus) In related news, California Highway Patrol officers fired into crowds at the Palestinian protests at

Leonard Downie, Jr. in The Washington Post, May 21, 2024, argues that Donald Trump’s recent threats against the news media should be taken seriously. During his first term, he undermined public trust in the press and factual reporting in numerous ways from making thousands of false statements to asking for boycotts of certain news organizations. One of the greatest fears is that if elected again, Trump would resist accountability by curtailing the press that criticizes

In a May 19, 2024 editorial, The Washington Post reports that top universities are beginning to question the wisdom of requiring job candidates to submit statements of how they would advance diversity, equity and inclusion. While the goals of achieving inclusive universities are still vital, requiring the statements may lead candidates to engage in “performative dishonesty” and result in “self-censorship and ideological policing.”

A local journalist settled a California Public Records lawsuit with the City of Los Angeles to obtain head shots of police officers only to find himself the subject of a counter lawsuit claiming that providing the records was in error and that the photos included undercover officers. (Reason, April 30, 2024, by Arvind Dilawar) The Ukiah city manager ended public discussion abut the fate of the landmark Palace Hotel, noting that the discussion was not

Jonathan D. Cohen and James Fallows in The Hill, May 14, 2024, argue that with the decline of the news industry, the U.S. losing one third of its newspapers along with 43,000 jobs in the last 20 years, the industry can be revived not with a bailout but with policy changes that treat journalism like infrastructure, “…journalism needs to be treated more like critical infrastructure. Highways, museums, libraries, courts, public-safety agencies, the military, advanced research