David Snyder

Trump By The Numbers: The Best of (New York) Times and the Worst of (New York) Times

BY DAVID SNYDER–Journalism in the age of Trump, as told through some key numbers and a familiar Dickensian device: Story #1 (the best of times) –In the last quarter of 2016, the New York Times had 276,000 new digital subscriptions, the largest three-month jump in six years, and in February the Times exceeded three million paid print and digital subscriptions. –Large newspapers and magazines are reporting similar surges across the board. –Contributions to nonprofit journalism

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Federal Judge Prevents Enforcement of California’s “IMDb Law” on First Amendment Grounds

A federal judge on February 22 issued a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of a California law that sought to prohibit the publication of the ages of actors, producers and others on the popular internet movie database, IMDb. FAC joined several other free-speech advocacy groups in filing a “friend of the court” brief last month opposing the law on First Amendment grounds. That brief argued the IMDb law ran afoul of the strong First Amendment protections

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The Threat to Free Speech is Real. But It Isn’t Coming From Where You Might Think.

BY DAVID SNYDER–Critics of Donald Trump don’t have far to look for evidence that he is hostile to free speech and a free press. Trump has called for criminal prosecution of those who burn the American flag, has declared a “running war” with the media, and routinely derides the press as uniformly “dishonest” and “disgusting.”   But the most alarming immediate threats to free speech in this new era aren’t coming directly from Trump.  

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Leaks in the Age of Trump–The Coming Flood

BY DAVID SNYDER—Donald Trump is about to control the most powerful political megaphone in the world.  As President, he will be able to move global markets, disrupt alliances, and start new conflicts (petty or grand) with a single Tweet.  If the past is any guide, he will do these things on his own schedule, irrespective of news cycles, press conferences or diplomatic norms.  And he will do them often. There will be no shortage of

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