Hope After Trump; The New York Times, June 7, 2025

Nicholas Kristof , The New York Times; Hope After Trump

"Authoritarians surround themselves with sycophants, so that no one warns them when they proclaim dumb policies that tank the economy. Free from oversight, they yield to dissolution and corruption...

In recent years alone, look at what has happened to some of the most prominent authoritarians around the world. In Brazil, the Supreme Court in March ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to stand trial on charges of discussing a coup to stay in office. And in Hungary, Orban’s party is now lagging in some opinion polls.

In the Philippines, Duterte targeted the brave journalist Maria Ressa, who faced up to 34 years in prison for committing journalism. But now Ressa has a Nobel Peace Prize and is free while Duterte is in a prison cell in The Hague, facing charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.

I caught up recently with Ressa, and her line to Americans is: “If you’re depressed now, think of the Philippines” — and find hope...

Domestically, the United States is showing resilience...

If Filipinos can win back their country, then surely we Americans can as well. Given the enormous stakes, this is a time for a rebirth of liberal patriotism. So don’t emigrate, friends; stay and fight for your country’s future. And the world’s."

The loss of editorial freedom at 60 Minutes is a sorry milestone for US media; The Guardian, May 1, 2025

Margaret Sullivan, The Guardian ; The loss of editorial freedom at 60 Minutes is a sorry milestone for US media

"Pelley said that, to date, no story had been killed but that Owens “felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires”.

Pelley’s comments were picked up widely, and now the world knows that viewers can no longer fully trust what they see on the Sunday evening show that has done such important and groundbreaking journalism for decades.

Of course, as with so many of the red alerts mentioned above – lawsuits, threats, changes in long-held practices that protect the public’s right to know – the problem involves Donald Trump’s overweening desire to control the media. Controlling the message is what would-be authoritarians always do.

Trump sued 60 Minutes for $20bn a few months ago, claiming unfair and deceptive editing of an interview with his then rival for the presidency, Kamala Harris. And his newly appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, took an aggressive approach by reopening an investigation into CBS over supposed distortion of the news. The editing of the Harris interview, by all reasonable accounts, followed standard practices.

What has happened with 60 Minutes is a high-octane version of what is happening everywhere in Trump 2.0.

Those who could stand up to Trump’s bullying are instead doing what scholars of authoritarianism say must be avoided, if democracy is to be salvaged. They are obeying in advance.

Not everyone, of course. It’s inspiring to see prominent institutions – Harvard and other universities, many law firms, Georgetown law school and the Associated Press – refusing to buckle."