Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Billie Jean Sweeney

Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 5d

The Free Press took the branding of journalism but none of the ethics or values. It's more of an affront to the profession than something like Fox News, which started out doing journalism aimed at a more right-wing audience and gradually slid into propaganda.

The Free Press started as propaganda.

Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 5d

I truly don't care how much money she makes or how many impressive people she rubs elbows with but her determined quest to devalue and diminish journalism as a profession feels personal.

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Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 20h

My most optimistic opinion is that the combination of cheap AI-generated fake news and major legacy news orgs taking a torch to their reputations is going to create huge opportunities for independent journalists who maintain a reputation for honest, ethical reporting.

Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · 20h

it's hard to talk about this without sounding braggy but you can get pretty far as a business with sincerity and trust, mostly because so many goddamn businesses burn up that kind of intangible resource as soon as they get it, and everything is so dire right now that people are hungry for trust

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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 19h

Thank you!

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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 20h

“I hope to live up to the ideals of both Annie and Ellie and the better angels of my profession. Journalism has an outsized role in the lives of every human being so I try to remind myself each day of my obligation. Keep going.”

Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 20h

Her grandmother moved from Ireland to America for a better life, now @billiejsweeney.bsky.social is going back.

America Was Once a Place For Brighter Futures — Assigned

Billie Jean Sweeney’s grandmother left Ireland in search of a better life. Now Sweeney’s pinning her hopes for safety on a reverse trip.

www.assignedmedia.org

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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 20h

“I hope to live up to the ideals of both Annie and Ellie and the better angels of my profession. Journalism has an outsized role in the lives of every human being so I try to remind myself each day of my obligation. Keep going.”

Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 20h

Her grandmother moved from Ireland to America for a better life, now @billiejsweeney.bsky.social is going back.

America Was Once a Place For Brighter Futures — Assigned

Billie Jean Sweeney’s grandmother left Ireland in search of a better life. Now Sweeney’s pinning her hopes for safety on a reverse trip.

www.assignedmedia.org

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Reposted by Billie Jean Sweeney

Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 20h

Her grandmother moved from Ireland to America for a better life, now @billiejsweeney.bsky.social is going back.

America Was Once a Place For Brighter Futures — Assigned

Billie Jean Sweeney’s grandmother left Ireland in search of a better life. Now Sweeney’s pinning her hopes for safety on a reverse trip.

www.assignedmedia.org

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Reposted by Billie Jean Sweeney

andrea shea @whattheshea.bsky.social · 21h

“If we view feminism as the struggle of gender-marginalized people for bodily autonomy, rather than just calling these things “women's issues,” then we make room for all trans people within feminism.”

Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 23h

"As much as our enemies are louder and crueler, and in many cases more powerful than ever, we have more allies than ever too."

Assigned Media interviews transmasc feminist @judedoyle.bsky.social

Jude Doyle On Manhood After Patriarchy — Assigned

Assigned Media interviews transmasc feminist author Jude Doyle.

www.assignedmedia.org

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 1d

who could forget when TFP published a totally dishonest hatchet job on a youth gender clinic from a bilious transphobe that (again) turned out to be bullshit, and she refused to take that down too prospect.org/blogs-and-ne...

The Useful Idiots Fueling the Right-Wing Transphobia Panic

Today on TAP: Prominent center-left journalists were swindled by obvious nonsense about a St. Louis gender clinic.

prospect.org

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 1d

I'm also reminded of the "whistleblower" report about abuses at a Missouri gender clinic, the author of which is now just a full-time anti-transgender lobbyist, that fell apart the moment any reporter tried to verify it

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

perhaps the biggest story TFPever ran was a catastrophically shoddy argument that George Floyd ackshully died of an overdose. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that the piece was simply wrong, Weiss didn’t take it down, she asked her critic, @radleybalko.bsky.social, to come on a podcast.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 1d

Conversion therapy remains legal when done by religious clergy but this would allow licensed therapists to engage in the abusive practice. Once they legalize it, the next step is to normalize it and then mandate it. The end goal is the eradication of LGBTQ identity to fulfill their eugenicist goals.

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Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 1d

The Free Press never did journalism and no one who cares a whit about journalism fucks with them.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

perhaps the biggest story TFPever ran was a catastrophically shoddy argument that George Floyd ackshully died of an overdose. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that the piece was simply wrong, Weiss didn’t take it down, she asked her critic, @radleybalko.bsky.social, to come on a podcast.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 3d

2 Oct 2025 -- Kansas (!) Supreme Court delivers big on trans drivers' license changes, declining to hear an appeal of a district court ruling made by anti-LGBTQ+ Attorney General Kris Kobach, who is trying to call a special legislative session on the matter. @rikiwilchins.bsky.social

Kansas Supreme Court Delivers Big Win For Driver’s License Gender Markers

“I want every transgender Kansan to be able to live their lives authentically.”

www.erininthemorning.com

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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 2d

The Supreme Court will hear a case seeking to legalize torture... er... conversion therapy under free speech protections.

That and not just one but TWO feel good stories to start the week in trans news in our Leading Off column.

Supreme Court to Hear Case On Conversion Therapy Ban — Assigned

Leading Off: The U.S. Supreme Court prepares to see a case on conversion therapy bans tomorrow, campaigning on an anti-trans platform is notably unpopular, and some states push to ease restrictions on...

www.assignedmedia.org

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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 2d

Judge Diane Goodstein crossed the Trump administration last month. Yesterday, her home burned, her husband was injured and it's being investigated for arson.

www.postandcourier.com/news/crime/s...

Judge blocks South Carolina from giving DOJ millions of voters' data
Sep. 3, 2025

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Jason Kander @jasonkander.bsky.social · 2d

I was a skeptic about the import of the Epstein files.

But 3 invasions of cities, one military buildup outside Venezuela, a government shutdown, and so many other things meant to distract have me convinced whatever’s in there is the biggest presidential scandal in U.S. history.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

five years ago bari weiss was trying, unsuccessfully, to get herself fired. now she’s running CBS News. that’s some michael jordan shit.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

perhaps the biggest story TFPever ran was a catastrophically shoddy argument that George Floyd ackshully died of an overdose. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that the piece was simply wrong, Weiss didn’t take it down, she asked her critic, @radleybalko.bsky.social, to come on a podcast.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 7d

Anti-trans people want "a strong, determined leader who will crush evil."

Journal Club takes a dive into a study showing the link between authoritarian and anti-trans beliefs.

Journal Club: Transphobes Just Want a Strong Leader — Assigned

A 2024 study takes a look at the link between anti-trans beliefs and desires for authoritarianism.

www.assignedmedia.org

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Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 6d

Alejandra does an incredible job here breaking down how the NYT presents itself yet again as neutrally documenting a “controversy” in a way that legitimizes bad faith actors, all while following a very familiar playbook. This is how epistemological violence gets laundered as “just asking questions”

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 7d

It then uses the same narrative framing of a one very rare diagnosis becoming much more common after diagnostic changes.

Text explains that autism first became a formal diagnosis in the 1980 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). At that time, it was used to identify toddlers who had severe language deficits, did not speak, or could not form social attachments. Most diagnosed children had an IQ below 70 and often engaged in self-destructive or aggressive behaviors, though some could recall facts with clarity. The manual described autism as “very rare.” It also shares Alison Singer’s personal experience in 1999, noticing her daughter Jodie behaved differently in a Mommy and Me class—lining up toys by size and color, and struggling with language.

Titled “A Unified ‘Spectrum.’” It describes how, after autism entered the DSM, clinicians observed children who didn’t meet strict requirements but showed similar traits, leading to the idea of autism as a “spectrum.” In 1994, the DSM broadened criteria, applying diagnosis to more people and adding Asperger’s syndrome as a related category. Asperger’s applied to children with social difficulties, repetitive behaviors, and narrow interests, but who could speak and typically had average or above-average intelligence.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 7d

Azeen Ghorayshi at the NYT has moved on from going after trans people and is now pushing the leasing question that autism diagnoses are too common because of its expansion of it to a spectrum.

archive.ph/Whji1

Alt text: A screenshot of a New York Times article titled “Should the Autism Spectrum Be Split Apart?” The image shows a woman with dark hair tied back with an orange patterned ribbon, smiling and leaning forward near a window with sunlight coming in. She is wearing a light orange top with thin straps.

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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 6d

On Friday 18 blue state attorneys general BLASTED the Federal Trade Commission, telling it to back off trans youth healthcare and warning of an insidious attempt to reshape the regulation of medicine in the US.

And nobody covered it.

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

State AGs Defend Trans Americans in Stunning Rebuke to Trump’s FTC — Assigned

Eighteen state Attorneys General unite to stand up in defense of trans Americans, in opposition to a Federal Trade Commission investigation into trans healthcare.

www.assignedmedia.org

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 11d

NEW: I arrived in the U.S. eight weeks ago to report on how the administration’s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines.

What I saw Thursday was the culmination of ICE’s aggressive behavior.

By @tilleckert.com

I Filmed the ICE Officer Who Shoved a Woman. It Felt Like the New Normal.

I arrived in the U.S. eight weeks ago to report on how the administration’s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines. What I saw Thursday was the culmination of ICE’s aggressive behavior.

www.propublica.org

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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 11d

Shame the nyt into ending its bigoted, pro-fascist positions. Sulzberger, who has led the way in elevating extremist, finds it distasteful to be explicitly associated with racism.

He’s a callow nepo baby who’s been handed everything. Shame him

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 13d

would love for what's happening to NYT, Disney, and Target become a trend

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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 11d

The nyt is a cancer on human rights, led by bigots who have also enabled the rise of anti democratic forces.

This is the legacy of Sulzberger and Kahn.

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 11d

The speed at which the administration has been able to convince people “gender ideology” is a normal and totally appropriate way to describe the idea that trans people deserve basic human rights is a sobering demonstration of how much they’ve managed to capture and reshape language. NYT this week.

The text of the U.N. declaration does not mention reproductive rights or gender ideology. The word "gender" appears several times in the document, but only in the context of the specific health challenges facing women.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 11d

UPDATE: The man ICE violently arrested has been identified as Job Arias-Mendoza. Two weeks ago he published a video to his social media accounts of ICE handcuffing a man in front of a liquor store—it has more than 200,000 views on TikTok. streetcarsuburbs.news/arias-mendoz...

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 11d

NEW: ICE agents violently arrested a man in a busy Hyattsville, MD intersection this week, at one point brandishing guns and pointing them at bystanders.

I spoke to multiple witnesses—including a local priest whose church is a sanctuary for undocumented people: www.thehandbasket.co/p/ice-agents...

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