Free Press, Free People
The imagery of comedian Melissa McCarthy as Press Secretary Sean Spicer ramming journalists with a foam podium during SNL’s mock press briefings is pretty funny. But the new administration’s overt attacks on the media as “Fake News” and “the enemy of the people” are no laughing matter. When a leader hand picks which media outlets to talk to and take questions from, we’re veering into dangerous territory.
Our country is built on the bedrock of a free press — and when our First Amendment rights are threatened, we must push back, hard.
If the administration won’t work with the media, we’ll get the stories out ourselves. Our rights don’t depend on a briefing room and handpicked easy questions. In March, we’re hosting an alternative press briefing across from the White House, where a consortium of journalists will stand up for press freedoms and discuss the hard questions.
Will you chip in now to help us make this event a success?
Give here: https://www.crowdpac.com/c/freethepress
Hostile briefing rooms and press conferences with the president are just the start of an all-out attack on the media. The administration is considering privatization of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides critical funding for NPR, PBS, and public broadcasting stations across the country. The loss of federal funding for public broadcasting would destroy public media as we know it. Most Americans oppose defunding the CPC, including 62% of Republicans. But when the president can just dismiss polls he doesn’t like as fake, we can’t ignore these new threats to the CPC.
With your help, we’ll stand up to attacks on our media.
And, if you would like to cover or participate in organizing our alternative press briefing or otherwise partner with this effort, please respond here.
