They Want Us Silent: Marcel Reid on Why Democracy Needs Whistleblowers and a Free Press
Whistleblower advocate Marcel Reid joins Lean to the Left to discuss threats to journalism, whistleblower protections, free speech, and democracy in America.
Are We Losing Our First Amendment Rights?
By C J Waldron In this day and age of creeping authoritarianism, the rights Americans have enjoyed for almost 250 years have been diminishing. Most particularly are our First Amendment rights. As the current administration tightens its grip on the reins of power, those who oppose it are losing the very freedoms upon which this […]
Signs of the Times: Jesus or Trump?
By Dan Luzadder Our sturdy whitewashed church, Center Chapel, stood on a modest hill overlooking wide sweeps of farmland; farm houses, red barns, furrowed fields and tree-lined fence rows in the distance. I first saw that landscape walking up worn stone steps with my working-class father, steadied by a painted metal railing, cool and smooth […]
Charlie Kirk and The Alamo
By C J Waldron Remember the Alamo was a battle cry used to stir Texans in their fight for independence from Mexico. Now, the Maga-verse is using Remember Charlie Kirk as a similar call to arms. Unlike Texas, those currently being called to the front lines aren’t confronting a foreign nation. Instead, they are being […]
Trump’s Hammer of Lies: Crushing the Press, Controlling the People
By C J Waldron “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses” — Malcolm X One of the most powerful weapons in an authoritarian’s arsenal is the ability to […]
No Laughing Matter
by C J Waldron When Jimmy Kimmel made a comment about MAGA, as it related to Charlie Kirk’s murder, there was immediate backlash. Under threat from Donald Trump’s self-appointed censor, FCC Chair Bredan Carr, Kimmel’s popular late night talk show was suspended indefinitely. There were other factors involved. Media giant Nexstar declared that it would […]
Colbert Canceled, NPR Defunded–Is Freedom of Speech Under Attack?
In this blistering commentary, Lean to the Left’s Bob Gatty connects the dots—from Colbert’s cancellation and Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, to the GOP’s war on public broadcasting. Is this about saving money—or silencing dissent?
Trump Attacks Freedom of Speech, Key to Democracy
by Bob Gatty The decision to cancel Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show on CBS, along with the Republicans’ devastating cuts to public broadcasting constitutes a major threat to freedom, of speech, a cornerstone of our democracy — and that should have us all up in arms. Listen View As my colleague, Mark M. Bello, wrote […]
The Colbert Cancellation — Who Was the Puppet-Master Behind the Curtain
by Mark M. Bello CBS canceled The Late Show just days after Colbert slammed its parent company for a $16 million Trump payoff. Coincidence? America deserves better than silence. So, who was responsible? CBS? Paramount? Skydance? Some yellow-haired bully? Who? On July 11, Stephen Colbert opened The Late Show with a scathing monologue aimed squarely […]