Media

• We’ve fought and won this battle before and we can do so again. But it’s going to take all of us working together. I will do my best working with my colleagues in the Senate to protect internet freedom, but we’ll need all of your voices engaged and ready to fight.
• Related: Net Neutrality Redux: Why Republicans Shouldn't Mess With the Internet

Ron Wyden, Free Press Action Fund 

Cartoon Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Amelia Kroeger

June 9, 2017 | Two years ago we accomplished something amazing together. Nearly 4 million people across the country called on the FCC to put in place strong Net Neutrality rules to protect the internet as a tool for innovation, creativity and free speech. And we won.

Now the free and open internet is once again under attack as Trump's FCC, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, is threatening to roll back these crucial protections. If Pai gets his way, massive cable and phone companies will have the power to control what we see and do online, creating “fast lanes” for those that can afford to pay — and leaving the rest of us in the dust.

We can’t let this happen. Send your comment to the FCC today to protect Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality rules have governed the internet since its inception, creating a space for free expression to flourish and for startups and small businesses to challenge huge legacy companies. Abandoning control of the internet to the handful of companies that provide broadband service would allow them to bury the speech of those they don't agree with and kill competition from startups before they even get off the ground.

Despite Pai's claim that he supports Net Neutrality, the proceeding he opened last month attacks not only the legal authority underpinning the rules — which is absolutely vital for enforcing them — but seeks to overturn these protections altogether. If Pai gets his way, Net Neutrality will be gone for good and people will be left with only the empty promises of big cable companies to protect them online.

If we want to defeat this attack on Net Neutrality, we’ll need all of you to speak out. Send your comment to the FCC today and tell it to leave Net Neutrality alone.

This administration has gone after so many crucial consumer protections that we have fought for, from ending exploitative prison-phone rates to banning your internet service provider from selling your personal data. The Trump team isn’t working for anyone besides the corporate lobbyists and millionaires that are filling the administration.

We’ve fought and won this battle before and we can do so again. But it’s going to take all of us working together. I will do my best working with my colleagues in the Senate to protect internet freedom, but we’ll need all of your voices engaged and ready to fight.

Thanks so much—

P.S. The Trump administration isn’t working for anyone besides corporate lobbyists and millionaires. We can’t let it destroy Net Neutrality — send your comment to the FCC today.

The Free Press Action Fund is a nonpartisan organization fighting for your rights to connect and communicate.

Ron Wyden is the senior United States Senator for Oregon.

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Net Neutrality Redux: Why Republicans Shouldn't Mess With the Internet, Mike Ludwig, Truthout <http://www.truth-out.org>

(Photo: Pexels)

• Republicans are working to gut net neutrality and other consumer protections online, and Democrats are using the issue to drive a wedge between the GOP and voters. Meanwhile, the same activists who turned net neutrality into a household name two years ago have vowed to make Republicans pay.
• Related: Live at Truthdig: What Is the Future of Net Neutrality Under Trump?

Reports on the Trump/Saudi arm deals focused on who would get paid–and ignored who it would cost.

• As of Monday afternoon (May 22, 2017), no major newspaper—New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, LA Times, Chicago Tribune or Daily News—has run an editorial condemning Trump for cozying up with and selling massive amounts of arms to the Saudi dictatorship. As FAIR noted last week (5/17/17), this outrage remains solely directed at dictatorships not in good standing with the US State Department.
• Related: The $110 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia is fake news

Adam Johnson, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

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May 22, 2017 | The Trump administration wrapped up a weapons deal with the Saudi Arabian government this week that will be worth up to $350 billion over the next ten years. News of the deal came as Trump visited Riyadh and paid fealty to one of the United States’ most enduring allies in the Middle East.

The vast majority of the reports on the topic, however, omitted a rather key piece of context—namely, whom the weapons will be used to kill.

The famine and brutal two-year-long war in Yemen being waged by the Saudis that has killed over 10,000 civilians wasn’t mentioned once in reports of the $300 billion deal to Saudi Arabia by CNN (5/19/17, 5/20/17), Washington Post  (5/19/17), The Independent (5/19/17), New York Daily News (5/20/17), CNBC (5/20/17, 5/22/17), CBS News (5/20/17), Business Insider (5/20/17), Time (5/20/17), Fox News (5/20/17), Reuters (5/20/17), ABC News (5/20/17), Fortune Magazine (5/20/17) or Chicago Tribune (5/20/17).

Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. 

Full story … 

Related: 

The $110 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia is fake news, Bruce Riedel, Brookings 

None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.

Barrett Brown at his residence in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday, May 20, 2017. (Photo: Candice Bernd)

The government is frankly illegitimate in many ways and should be treated as such. I think that will become more evident. Let's say, even if they successfully remove this administration, we still have this 35 percent of people in this country who will support any fascist authoritarian like this, and they're still there. They may increase in number.

Candice Bernd, Truthout

Saturday, June 03, 2017 | Barrett Brown, who was arrested in 2012 and subsequently imprisoned for his reporting on hacked emails from private intelligence contracting firms, was unexpectedly back in the news recently after he was rearrested during a check-in for "failure to obtain permission" to speak to the press.

In 2011, Brown not only exposed that the private intelligence firm Stratfor had been snooping on activists on behalf of corporations, but also revealed plans by intelligence contractors to hack and smear activists.

Candice Bernd, is an editor/staff reporter at Truthout <http://www.truth-out.org>, and a contributor to Truthout's anthology on police violence, Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? With her partner, she wrote and produced Don't Frack With Denton, a documentary chronicling how their hometown became the first city to ban fracking in Texas, and its subsequent overturn in the state legislature. She was honored with the Dallas Peace and Justice Center's "Media Peacemaker of the Year" award in December. 

Full story … 

Related: 

A Deep State of Mind: America’s Shadow Government and Its Silent Coup, John W. Whitehead, Counterpunch 

• As long as government officials—elected and unelected alike—are allowed to operate beyond the reach of the Constitution, the courts and the citizenry, the threat to our freedoms remains undiminished.
• So the next time you find yourselves despondent over the 2016 presidential candidates, remember that it’s just a puppet show intended to distract you from the silent coup being carried out by America’s shadow government.
• Related: From the Archives | Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change

• Part 1: Net neutrality: why the next 10 days are so important in the fight for fair internet
  • US campaigners rejoiced in 2015 when ‘net neutrality’ enshrined the internet as a free and level playing field. A vote on 18 May could take it all back.
• Part 2: John Oliver on net neutrality: 'Every internet group needs to come together'
  • The Last Week Tonight host discussed the potentially serious implications of new legislation that could affect the power ISPs have over what we view.

• Related: Sign now: Why We Protest Killing Net Neutrality

Compiled by David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest 

Unlike many others, we haven't put up a paywall - we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. Support us with a contribution today.

Part 1: Net neutrality: why the next 10 days are so important in the fight for fair internet

Net neutrality, the idea that internet service providers must treat everything equally, has been described as ‘the first amendment of the internet’. Photograph: Juice/REX/Shutterstock 

US campaigners rejoiced in 2015 when ‘net neutrality’ enshrined the internet as a free and level playing field. A vote on 18 May could take it all back.

Olivia Solon, the Guardian

Tuesday 9 May 2017 | Thursday 26 February 2015 was a good day for internet freedom campaigners. On that day the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to more strictly regulate internet service providers (ISPs) and to enshrine the principles of “net neutrality” as law.

The vote reclassified wireless and fixed-line broadband service providers as Title II “common carriers”, a public utility-type designation that gives the FCC the ability to set rates, open up access to competitors and more closely regulate the industry.

Olivia Solon is a senior technology reporter for the Guardian San Francisco.

Full story … 

Part 2: John Oliver on net neutrality: 'Every internet group needs to come together'

‘I do not particularly trust this or any Congress to get something as complicated as this right’ ... John Oliver on net neutrality. Photograph: YouTube 

The Last Week Tonight host discussed the potentially serious implications of new legislation that could affect the power ISPs have over what we view.

Guardian Staff, the Guardian

Monday, 8 May 2017John Oliver has sent out a warning over the Trump administration’s attack on net neutrality, detailing the problems that it could bring.

On his HBO show, Last Week Tonight, the comic spoke about the president’s desire to roll back Barack Obama’s attempts to prevent companies from exerting control over people’s access to certain sites.

Full story … 

Related: 

Sign now: Why We Protest Killing Net Neutrality, Compiled by David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest 

• Part 1: Sign now: Don’t kill net neutrality
  • Net neutrality. The idea that every site, and every user, is treated the same online.
• Part 2: Protesters Take Net Neutrality Issue To FCC Chair's Home Teaser
  • FCC Chair Ajit Pai Needs to be Personally Protested Because He Comes to the FCC With a Personal Agenda.
• Related: Net Neutrality: Internet Groups Need to Fight for a Fair Internet Now.