Free Republic

When someone says something we disagree with, should we shut them up? In 1927, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis had an answer: "The remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence." Well, in that case, the internet should have solved everything, notes correspondent David Pogue – it's nothing but more speech. And yet lately, the news is full of stories about people trying to limit other people's expression. The free-speech erosion is even happening in schools. Since January last year, according to PEN America, Republican lawmakers have introduced more than 150 state laws that would restrict how teachers...

Journalism is just one of the industries hard-hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic. While we reimagine journalism’s structures and funding models, what role might the government play in intervening to support the role of a functioning press—not just someday, but now? In a new report published by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, Penny Abernathy—a collaborator on our Cutback Tracker project—underlines the stakes. Since 2005, more than a quarter of the country’s newspapers have disappeared. In the same fifteen-year span, the number of local journalists working in newsrooms has dropped by...