(Photo by Tom Copi, Life Magazine)
Fall, 1968.
Earlier in that year, Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated in Memphis. Two months later, Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated in L.A. The summer was ugly and violent. Fires burned in our major cities.
I was editing the summer edition of my college newspaper, the Michigan Daily. Once classes started up again, in late August, the tension in the air above Ann Arbor was palpable. Someone bombed the office building where the CIA had a local liaison office. Anti-war and civil-rights demonstrations were almost as frequent as classes, and much better attended.
As an activist-journalist, I faced a constant dilemma: Should I try to write about these developments or take a stand myself? Most of the time, I found a balance, covering demonstrations and writing about them from the point of view of a participant; even though I was too busy gathering factual information to really do things like carry signs or chant.
That fall, however, one cause especially captured my (activist's) heart, in addition to my (journalist's) brain. A group of poor black women in Ann Arbor staged what was widely known as a "welfare mother's campaign" against policies aimed at reducing their benefits.
This was a movement composed not of college students, with all of our mixed-up, youthful ideas, but of middle-aged black women struggling to raise their kids with a paucity of resources in the richest country on earth.
They occupied the county building and a bunch of us from the university decided to join them. That's how I acquired a record, for trespassing, i.e., sitting down and refusing to move when ordered to do so by the police.
I got roughed up as I was arrested. My glasses were broken as two officers took me into a door as opposed to through it. Slightly dazed and definitely not seeing clearly, I did recognize a friend, the photographer Tom Copi, as I was hauled outside to the paddy wagon.
Bravely (I thought) I raised the V for victory signal, but truth to tell, I was shaken by the violence I had just experienced, even though I knew it was minor compared to the vicious beatings I'd seen cops deal protestors when I was on the sidelines, wearing my journalistic credential around my neck.
This time, however, I had placed my press ID in my pocket and joined the people protesting.
Sometimes, you have to do that.
***
As Trump prepares to assume formal power on Monday, every manner of sycophant, hustler and conspiracy theorist is rushing to bend a knee before this would-be dictator, so we will be more dependent than ever on a vibrant free press to hold the line against the tsunami of disinformation headed our way.
In this context, it’s disheartening to learn that CNN is planning to move one of the anchors Trump hates most — Jim Acosta — to a graveyard shift that would air from midnight to 2 a.m. on the east coast.
On Thursday, Acosta not so subtly noted the importance of the news media to democracy after President Biden warned about the danger to the press in his farewell address. "He (Biden) warned the free press is crumbling in this country. I would add, that's only if we, the people, let that happen," Acosta said.
So let’s not let that happen.
(Thanks to Mary Sturges for first alerting me to the Acosta story.)
HEADLINES:
CNN Plots to Bury the Anchor Trump Hates Most (Daily Beast)
CNN Reportedly Wants To Banish Its Trump Nemesis Anchor To 'Siberia Of Television News' (HuffPost)
CNN Could Face Backlash Over Potential Move of Jim Acosta (Variety)
"We're being weak": CNN staff react to rumblings that network plans to "sideline" Acosta under Trump (Salon)
CNN's Jim Acosta says 'we are not the enemy of the people' in shot at Trump as he returns to office (Fox)
Google’s Journalism Deal With California Up in the Air After UC Berkeley Backs Out (KQED)
Israel’s Cabinet approves a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza (AP)
US Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, leaving app's fate to Trump (Reuters)
Is the TikTok Ban a Chance to Rethink the Whole Internet? (New Yorker)
Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment is ‘the law of the land.’ What is it, and what happens next? (AP)
Trump inauguration ceremony moving inside the Capitol due to freezing temperatures (CBS)
Trump’s Threat to U.S. Intelligence (Foreign Affairs)
Biden sets record by commuting sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted on nonviolent drug charges (AP)
Merrick Garland’s Final Plea for Norms at the Justice Department (New Yorker)
Supreme Court to hear case on opting out of lessons with LGBTQ+ books (WP)
Trump’s Deportation Plan Is Said to Start Next Week in Chicago (NYT)
Immigrant US farmworkers prepare for Trump's mass deportation plan. (Reuters)
How resistance to Trump may look different in his second administration (WP)
A giant battery power plant is on fire in California (Verge)
How Jeff Bezos can stop the bleeding at the Washington Post (Guardian)
Chinese, U.S. users of RedNote find rare space for candid exchanges (Reuters)
Not just hype — here are real-world use cases for AI agents (Venture Beat)
Apple suspends AI-generated news alert service after BBC complaint (Guardian)
Apple halts AI feature that made iPhones hallucinate about news (WP)
OpenAI is trying to extend human life, with help from a longevity startup (TechCrunch)
Egyptologists Unearth Depictions Of Simple Ramps, Levers Aliens Used To Build Pyramids (The Onion)
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Who Killed Betty Van Patter?
(Photo courtesy of the Baltar family)
Welcome, readers of Berkeleyside, The Oaklandside, and Richmondside who are looking for the rest of the ten-part series, “Who Killed Betty Van Patter?” Just click on the links below to read each part.
See also: Betty Van Patter, the Black Panthers’ bookkeeper, was murdered 50 years ago. Who killed her? Investigative reporter David Weir and others have spent decades searching for answers. (Berkeleyside) (Richmondside)
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