Bilal Baydoun
@bilalb.bsky.social
Views here my own. Director of Democratic Institutions @rooseveltinstitute.org and @Rooseveltforward.org. #FirstGen Go Blue.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
No one has seriously said LLMs aren’t important or that AI is categorically junk.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
February 11, 2026 at 5:53 PM
No one has seriously said LLMs aren’t important or that AI is categorically junk.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
I don’t really pay attention to charges of doomerism. I don’t know what it means offline.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
I understand why people are exhausted by AI hype, and why those of us squarely in the corner of "human dignity uber alles" see AI doomerism as self-serving hype, but I *really* think people on the left broadly need to start thinking seriously about the possibiltiy of the hype being...true.
February 11, 2026 at 5:51 PM
I don’t really pay attention to charges of doomerism. I don’t know what it means offline.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
It’s now official. I’ll be publishing my first book, Respectability Politics, w/ @uchicagopress.bsky.social!
Proud to join a press w/ a strong lineage in Black studies & Black politics, including Cohen’s Boundaries of Blackness, which has deeply inspired my work.
Now to get these revisions done.
Proud to join a press w/ a strong lineage in Black studies & Black politics, including Cohen’s Boundaries of Blackness, which has deeply inspired my work.
Now to get these revisions done.
February 11, 2026 at 7:52 PM
It’s now official. I’ll be publishing my first book, Respectability Politics, w/ @uchicagopress.bsky.social!
Proud to join a press w/ a strong lineage in Black studies & Black politics, including Cohen’s Boundaries of Blackness, which has deeply inspired my work.
Now to get these revisions done.
Proud to join a press w/ a strong lineage in Black studies & Black politics, including Cohen’s Boundaries of Blackness, which has deeply inspired my work.
Now to get these revisions done.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
Great piece by @jamellebouie.net on the need for ICE hearings. Get it all out there. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
Opinion | We Have to Look Right in the Face of What We Have Become
www.nytimes.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Great piece by @jamellebouie.net on the need for ICE hearings. Get it all out there. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
I made a case for ending our America-last corporate tax policy here: news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights...
‘America Last’ Corporate Tax Policies Can End With This Congress
Opinion: FACT Coalition's Zorka Milin says Congress should raise certain global tax rates that were part of the soon-expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in addit...
news.bloombergtax.com
February 11, 2026 at 1:57 PM
I made a case for ending our America-last corporate tax policy here: news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights...
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
This merger would further concentrate media ownership in fewer hands, at a time when the president and his allies seem to be repurposing regulatory tools meant to protect the public interest to influence media companies' business and editorial decisions.
This deal should be roundly rejected.
This deal should be roundly rejected.
Trump pushes for Nexstar-Tegna merger
Trump pushes for Nexstar-Tegna merger
The president’s call could disappoint key conservative media operatives opposed to the deal.
dlvr.it
February 10, 2026 at 6:35 PM
This merger would further concentrate media ownership in fewer hands, at a time when the president and his allies seem to be repurposing regulatory tools meant to protect the public interest to influence media companies' business and editorial decisions.
This deal should be roundly rejected.
This deal should be roundly rejected.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
... We've also championed state-level funding initiatives that create local "Civic Information Consortiums" & journalist fellowships that put more reporting boots on the ground in local communities nationwide.
Pennsylvania legislators just advanced a model, based on a similar success in New Jersey.
Pennsylvania legislators just advanced a model, based on a similar success in New Jersey.
Pennsylvania House Committee Advances Essential Legislative Package to Support Local Journalism and Civic Information
The bills follow legislative models that are helping to support local news in a growing number of states.
www.freepress.net
February 6, 2026 at 3:09 PM
... We've also championed state-level funding initiatives that create local "Civic Information Consortiums" & journalist fellowships that put more reporting boots on the ground in local communities nationwide.
Pennsylvania legislators just advanced a model, based on a similar success in New Jersey.
Pennsylvania legislators just advanced a model, based on a similar success in New Jersey.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
Yeah, part of what's weird here is as recently as fall 2021 Bezos was funding the expansion of the Post by *40* editors, which is nearly unheard-of for a mature news org. Read this memo -- and note that every single person who signed it was gone by end of 2025 www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2021/09/2...
February 4, 2026 at 5:48 PM
Yeah, part of what's weird here is as recently as fall 2021 Bezos was funding the expansion of the Post by *40* editors, which is nearly unheard-of for a mature news org. Read this memo -- and note that every single person who signed it was gone by end of 2025 www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2021/09/2...
In whatever democracy reform package/effort emerges out of this, we cannot give short shrift to public media as vital democratic infrastructure. It has to be front and center.
February 4, 2026 at 5:00 PM
In whatever democracy reform package/effort emerges out of this, we cannot give short shrift to public media as vital democratic infrastructure. It has to be front and center.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
Today’s layoffs at the Washington Post should not be understood in a vacuum.
News outlets nationwide have suffered for decades under a profit-maximizing logic that ignores the media’s civic role as a trusted messenger.
The reaction from our Director of Democratic Institutions @bilalb.bsky.social ⬇️
News outlets nationwide have suffered for decades under a profit-maximizing logic that ignores the media’s civic role as a trusted messenger.
The reaction from our Director of Democratic Institutions @bilalb.bsky.social ⬇️
February 4, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Today’s layoffs at the Washington Post should not be understood in a vacuum.
News outlets nationwide have suffered for decades under a profit-maximizing logic that ignores the media’s civic role as a trusted messenger.
The reaction from our Director of Democratic Institutions @bilalb.bsky.social ⬇️
News outlets nationwide have suffered for decades under a profit-maximizing logic that ignores the media’s civic role as a trusted messenger.
The reaction from our Director of Democratic Institutions @bilalb.bsky.social ⬇️
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
A lot of people cannot just start a paid newsletter or become freelancers to sustain their careers. The sports, metro, and international desks did work that requires *team* resources, like legal checks, documents, access to archives, and long-term beat experience.
February 4, 2026 at 2:42 PM
A lot of people cannot just start a paid newsletter or become freelancers to sustain their careers. The sports, metro, and international desks did work that requires *team* resources, like legal checks, documents, access to archives, and long-term beat experience.
Democracy Dies in Darkness. That’s why we love this new UV Lamp! (sponsored)
February 4, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Democracy Dies in Darkness. That’s why we love this new UV Lamp! (sponsored)
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
There was (and remains) a real journalistic opening for a super-robust news operation that isn't doing false equivalence. That's what's needed in the Trump era. That could have been the Post. Except its owner doesn't want that. newrepublic.com/article/2061...
The Washington Post Is in Freefall—and There’s One Person to Blame
Today’s layoffs at this once-great newspaper were nowhere near inevitable. But Jeff Bezos was never committed to the paper’s best traditions.
newrepublic.com
February 4, 2026 at 4:46 PM
There was (and remains) a real journalistic opening for a super-robust news operation that isn't doing false equivalence. That's what's needed in the Trump era. That could have been the Post. Except its owner doesn't want that. newrepublic.com/article/2061...
Any newspapers that pose a threat to their billionaire owners are going to get the Grover Norquist treatment. They will be made small enough to drown in a bathtub. And the owners will use same pretexts—efficiency, viability, “waste”—to justify this ideological project.
February 4, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Any newspapers that pose a threat to their billionaire owners are going to get the Grover Norquist treatment. They will be made small enough to drown in a bathtub. And the owners will use same pretexts—efficiency, viability, “waste”—to justify this ideological project.
What we’re witnessing at the Washington Post is the folly of entrusting self-interested billionaires with any democratic institution, especially a free and independent press. We need to a) permanently bury the myth of billionaire saviors and b) build a world-class public media system.
February 4, 2026 at 4:26 PM
What we’re witnessing at the Washington Post is the folly of entrusting self-interested billionaires with any democratic institution, especially a free and independent press. We need to a) permanently bury the myth of billionaire saviors and b) build a world-class public media system.
Yes.
always bears repeating that this is NOT a financial decision. jeff bezos is worth over 250 billion dollars. he can afford to lose many millions and never even notice it. this is, at its core, a political and personal decision by bezos to destroy the post
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Post says one-third of its staff across all departments, not just the newsroom, is being laid off.
February 4, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Yes.
To be clear this is a joke and not a direct quote from the Bezos Zoom call.
If you cut all the journalists you can just run sponsored content at every desk. Sports Desk by DraftKings. International Desk by Northrop Grumman. Or maybe the reporters can wear ad jackets like NASCAR drivers. That would be great for viability.
February 4, 2026 at 4:12 PM
To be clear this is a joke and not a direct quote from the Bezos Zoom call.
Journalism is valuable because of its benefits to the polity, not how much it contributes to GDP. Talking about newsrooms only in economic or financial terms is a slick way to obscure that. Viability to what end? Presumably, one would want a newspaper to remain viable so that it can be a newspaper.
February 4, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Journalism is valuable because of its benefits to the polity, not how much it contributes to GDP. Talking about newsrooms only in economic or financial terms is a slick way to obscure that. Viability to what end? Presumably, one would want a newspaper to remain viable so that it can be a newspaper.
If you cut all the journalists you can just run sponsored content at every desk. Sports Desk by DraftKings. International Desk by Northrop Grumman. Or maybe the reporters can wear ad jackets like NASCAR drivers. That would be great for viability.
February 4, 2026 at 4:03 PM
If you cut all the journalists you can just run sponsored content at every desk. Sports Desk by DraftKings. International Desk by Northrop Grumman. Or maybe the reporters can wear ad jackets like NASCAR drivers. That would be great for viability.
Yes but this wasn't inevitable. The internet destroyed key sources of revenue like classified ads (e.g. Craigslist). But we could insulated journalism from market failure by standing up a robust publicly-funded media system. We still can! Commercialism was always an existential threat to journalism.
I'm a contrarian on this WaPo thing. I hate to see it destroyed but then again I hated to see all the newspapers destroyed. I don't think this has too much to do with Trump or Bezos directly; it is the rise of the Internet that slowly but surely destroyed the newspaper age.
February 4, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Yes but this wasn't inevitable. The internet destroyed key sources of revenue like classified ads (e.g. Craigslist). But we could insulated journalism from market failure by standing up a robust publicly-funded media system. We still can! Commercialism was always an existential threat to journalism.
This. The economic justifications we get whenever a newspaper is decimated are always ideological. "Viability" is a euphemism that treats journalistic organizations like profit-maximizing firms and nothing else. Democracy isn't viable without journalism.
Bezos isn't destroying the Washington Post because it isn't profitable. He's destroying the Washington Post because he's calculated that a robust free press threatens the ability of his class to warp society around their interests
February 4, 2026 at 3:52 PM
This. The economic justifications we get whenever a newspaper is decimated are always ideological. "Viability" is a euphemism that treats journalistic organizations like profit-maximizing firms and nothing else. Democracy isn't viable without journalism.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
Newspapers provided news as a club good economically (non-rivalrous but excludable). The internet broke that. Now it's a public good. What you want is non-profit and/or public funding to produce news regardless of profit. The hope was Bezos would operate like that given his vast wealth. He didn't.
February 4, 2026 at 3:39 PM
Newspapers provided news as a club good economically (non-rivalrous but excludable). The internet broke that. Now it's a public good. What you want is non-profit and/or public funding to produce news regardless of profit. The hope was Bezos would operate like that given his vast wealth. He didn't.
Reposted by Bilal Baydoun
This set of essays, led by @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social and @adambonica.bsky.social, is really important. Folks should spend time with them.
And their response to the responses reads like two scholars tired of bringing loads of evidence to a fight where some folks are just bringing vibes.
And their response to the responses reads like two scholars tired of bringing loads of evidence to a fight where some folks are just bringing vibes.
We have a Boston Review Forum out today on the Democratic Party in a time of authoritarianism
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
February 3, 2026 at 5:28 PM
This set of essays, led by @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social and @adambonica.bsky.social, is really important. Folks should spend time with them.
And their response to the responses reads like two scholars tired of bringing loads of evidence to a fight where some folks are just bringing vibes.
And their response to the responses reads like two scholars tired of bringing loads of evidence to a fight where some folks are just bringing vibes.
"The gun and the phone are both weapons, one a tool for violence and the other a tool of control." @tressiemcphd.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...
Opinion | ICE Is Watching You
www.nytimes.com
February 3, 2026 at 4:10 PM
"The gun and the phone are both weapons, one a tool for violence and the other a tool of control." @tressiemcphd.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...
A remarkable and chilling insight from Ta-Nehisi Coates.
February 2, 2026 at 6:50 PM
A remarkable and chilling insight from Ta-Nehisi Coates.