Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 2d

Disgusted we live in an era when the most unqualified folks get the most prestigious jobs across government, media & many other industries

& somehow companies like Paramount have money ($150M) to buy publications like The Free Press while claiming there’s no money to fairly pay actual journalists

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

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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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 2d

Now that it’s official, re-upping and standing by this post from a few days ago

Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

There is no way that The Free Press is worth $150 million

Even if you take their paid subscribers numbers as accurate, that’s not more than $15 million in subscriber revenue

Paramount is willing to pay 10x for it? 🤔

Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 5d

Bari Weiss is expected to be named editor in chief at CBS News on Monday, with parent company Paramount paying $150m in cash and stock to acquire her Substack publication, The Free Press. My story this morning: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

*A Republican lawmaker objected to reference to Charlie Kirk holding “often racist and controversial views” in local Alaska news
*The corporate owner took down the story and edited it
*The journalists resigned

This feels like more and more of our media now.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...

Journalists at 3 Newspapers Quit Over Edits to a Charlie Kirk Story

www.nytimes.com

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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 5d

Way besides the point, but I am chuckling over how he says “Madam Secretary.”

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes.bsky.social · 5d

Kristi Noem’s message to the NFL for selecting Bad Bunny for the halftime show:

“The NFL sucks and we’ll win and God will bless us and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day and they won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe…”

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Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · 5d

I have talked to CBS staffers who are worried about what will happen when they have a major story

Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 5d

“'The fact that we don't have money to pay journalists, but we have money to pay Bari Weiss between $100 and 200 million is indicative of what the Ellisons' true goal here is,' a network correspondent said. 'And it's not journalism.'"

CBS News staffers are ‘literally freaking out’ about Bari Weiss taking over newsroom

EXCLUSIVE: ‘People are using words like depressing and doomsday – feels like some sort of doomsday,’ one source told The Independent about the mood inside CBS News right now.

www.independent.co.uk

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

I think most Americans would look at this and say, No I don’t want this kind of thing happening every day in the United States

alexjungle.bsky.social @alexjungle.bsky.social · 5d

Breaking news: ICE stops family at gunpoint—smash car window on top of newborn baby.

"I was screaming that there was a baby. But they didn’t care," cried mother.

“I covered my baby with my body—I was so scared he was going to be hurt because glass was landing on him."

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

I think most reasonable people can agree that the level of force used here is overly aggressive and generally unhinged.

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 5d

Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes' office has released video of federal agents handcuffing her at Humboldt Park Health, as she asked them to present a judicial warrant for another arrest.

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Public Citizen @publiccitizen.bsky.social · 5d

Trump last year vs. Trump in the middle of a government shutdown:

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

There is no way that The Free Press is worth $150 million

Even if you take their paid subscribers numbers as accurate, that’s not more than $15 million in subscriber revenue

Paramount is willing to pay 10x for it? 🤔

Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 5d

Bari Weiss is expected to be named editor in chief at CBS News on Monday, with parent company Paramount paying $150m in cash and stock to acquire her Substack publication, The Free Press. My story this morning: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Bari Weiss to be named top editor at CBS News

Paramount Skydance will acquire the journalist’s publication, the Free Press, which she started after quitting the New York Times in 2020.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Kieran Meadows

Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 5d

Among President Trump's canceled food aid:
* 2,300 gallons of 2% milk to the Heart Of Alabama Food Bank
* 19,000 pounds of pork chops to the Palm Beach County Food Bank in Florida
And so much more.

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

projects.propublica.org

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City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 5d

For everyone stuck writing about today’s cancellations, here’s the metadata from the “rule” that Vought claims both New York and Chicago are somehow in violation of. The PDF to post it wasn’t even created until 5:47pm, was last modified at 5:55pm. And the government shut down six hours later at 12am

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

Breaking: Trump admin reverses itself after defunding the police

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/n...

Trump Administration Reverses $187 Million in N.Y. Counterterrorism Cuts

www.nytimes.com

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

👇🏼

Jacqueline Sweet @jsweetli.bsky.social · 5d

SCOOP: PA prosecutors were alerted to possible voting irregularities by one of MAGA's leading voices. A long paper trail shows Jack Posobiec has been living in Maryland but voting using his parent's address in Pennsylvania for years. Me with @marisakabas.bsky.social

slate.com/news-and-pol...

MAGA’s “Voter Fraud” Watchdog Votes in a Swing State. He Doesn’t Live There.

A long paper trail shows that Jack Posobiec casts a ballot in one state and lives in another.

slate.com

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

👇🏼

ProPublica @propublica.org · 5d

Crystal Carter went to tour an apartment. Rent was $1,500 a month.

“I’ll be paying with a Section 8 voucher,” she said.

“Yeah,” the landlord said. “I don’t do Section 8.”

This is what housing voucher discrimination looks like 👇

(Published 2020 w/ @ctmirror.org)

How Wealthy Towns Keep People With Housing Vouchers Out

Section 8 vouchers should give low-income people the opportunity to live outside poor communities. But discriminatory landlords, exclusionary zoning and the federal government’s hands-off approach lea...

www.propublica.org

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 5d

👇🏼

ACLU @aclu.org · 6d

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 6d

In case it wasn’t clear, the anti-DEI crusade has never been about merit. Zero news experience. Never been a reporter. Elevated to Editor in Chief of CBS News, one of the most storied news institutions in the nation. www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...

Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report

Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, accordin...

www.mediaite.com

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 6d

Former CNN president Jeff Zucker described Weiss as “unafraid” & that her “confidence scares a lot of people”

Know who else is thoroughly “unafraid” & “confident”?

Amy Goodman (know from personal experience)

But no rich influential folks are suggesting Amy becomes editor-in-chief of CBS News

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 6d

It took 20 years to go from Dan Rather to Bari Weiss.

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Diana B. Henriques @dianabhenriques.bsky.social · 6d

He's lying. If Bessent actually HAD asked this question, the Chinese answer would have been "Huh?? Are you crazy?? We bought half the US harvest last year - under Biden!"
See:
www.forbes.com/sites/kenrob...

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 6d

Still waiting for Trump’s health care plan after all these years

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6d

Mullin: "We know Obamacare, affordable healthcare, didn't work because it made the healthcare costs go through the roof. If we want to solve this issue, how about we use the president that's in office right now? He's the art of the deal, he knows business, he knows what free markets can do"

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 6d

NEW—US Department of Education sent out standard Out of Office language to employees on Wednesday in light of shutdown. Later yesterday, workers tell me they found someone had updated their auto-responses without consent to a new one blaming Democrats.

Version of original on left, updated on right:

Thank you for your email. There is a temporary shutdown of the U.S. government due to a lapse in appropriations. I will respond to your message as soon as possible after the temporary shutdown ends. Please visit ED.gov for the latest information on the
Department's operational status.
Thank you.

Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.

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Thomas Brewster @thomasbrewster.bsky.social · 7d

🚨NEW🚨 Amazon has been developing drone surveillance tech for American cops, from gun detection to repurposing Twitch's streaming code.

It's also pushing all manner of surveillance tools, including Flock car tracking and AI that constantly monitors all prison calls.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

Inside Amazon’s Aggressive Push To Get Cops Using AI Surveillance

Inside Amazon’s Aggressive Push To Get Cops Using AI

www.forbes.com

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 7d

Pretty blatant violations of the Hatch Act

stephen fowler @stphnfwlr.com · 8d

@npr.org EXCLUSIVE: Trump administration uses taxpayer dollars to blame Democrats for government shutdown

Experts say the messages may violate ethics laws meant to keep partisan politics out of day-to-day governing.

@jennamclaughlin.bsky.social @shannonbond.bsky.social

Trump administration uses taxpayer dollars to blame Democrats for government shutdown

Federal employees across the government reported seeing similar messages. Experts say the messages may violate ethics laws meant to keep partisan politics out of day-to-day governing.

www.npr.org

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Kieran Meadows @kieranbluesky.bsky.social · 7d

History is not going to be kind to Speaker Mike Johnson

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hold on a second. Answer the question. As Speaker, do you believe it's appropriate to use American cities as training grounds for the military, calling those people 'the enemy within'?

JOHNSON: I'm not comment on your characterization of what the president said.

S: Those are quotes

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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 7d

Bin-go

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