Craig Newmark Philanthropies Commits $75K to FAC
FAC
June 1, 2022
Grant will support work defending press freedom, government transparency and civic engagement
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News & Opinion
Professor’s firing sets off free speech alarm
donal brown
May 31, 2022
Princeton University fired Joshua Katz, a tenured classics professor, for lying about a sexual relationship with an undergraduate student 15 years ago. In 2020 he wrote an article for an online journal criticizing anti-racist proposals by the Princeton community. Katz’s lawyer said, “The university’s decision will have a powerful chilling effect on free speech, because anyone who might wish to express a controversial opinion knows that they must first ask themselves if their personal life
Internet lies about mass shootings block engagement
donal brown
May 31, 2022
Just as with the Sandy Hook, Parkland and other mass shootings, false claims proliferated online about the shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The usual claim was that the shooting was staged but also that the gunman was living illegally in the U.S. or transgender. The claims block real discussion of the problem of gun violence and allow people to avoid reality and fix blame. (The Associated Press, May 26, 2022, by David
Will Supreme Court Cruz decision promote free speech?
donal brown
May 24, 2022
The Wall Street Journal hailed the recent 6-3 Supreme Court decision in FEC v. Cruz as a victory for free speech. The decision rejects a part of the McCain-Feingold law of 2002 limiting repayment of a loan by a candidate to his own campaign to $250,000. Justice Roberts wrote that the law burdened “core speech” (Herald Democrat, May 22, 2022, opinion by The Wall Street Journal) Ian Millhiser in Vox, May 16, 2022, writes that
Fox news under fire for part in Buffalo tragedy
donal brown
May 24, 2022
After it emerged that the suspect in the Buffalo shooting rampage was an adherent of “replacement theory” that there is a conspiracy to replace native-born Americans with non-white immigrants, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced Rupert Murdock and Fox News for “reckless amplification” of the theory. (Deadline, May 17, 2022, by Ted Johnson) Columnist Margaret Sullivan, The Washington Post, May 17, 2022, writes that the rampage “was fueled by a burgeoning ideology of the radical