- Data Center Movement in Focus
- Israel Targets Reporters in Lebanon
- Profile in Courage: Amy Goodman
- Profile in Pilferage: Sam Altman
- How the Tech World Turned Evil
- Children’s Publishing in the MAGA Era
- Independent Media and the Hungary Election
- Here Comes the AI Money Squeeze
- Hasan Piker: All the Rage
- Palantir Rallies the Troops
By Nicholas Rabb, Common Dreams
While data centers may seem an unlikely target for social justice movements, upon examining the features of the fights themselves, they reveal themselves to be a strong target for organized resistance. The anti-data center movement may in fact be a signal of a new direction for social justice organizing we have yet to tap into.
Israel Targets Reporters in Lebanon
By Zahra Hankir, Columbia Journalism Review
A nation that helped shape modern war reporting is now treated as peripheral. In the wake of journalist killings, the consequences are clear not only for members of the press, but for how the story of Lebanon is being told.
Profile in Courage: Amy Goodman
By Ed Rampell, Truthdig
They practice “trickle-up” journalism. “Steal This Story, Please!” is a film that’s about that in many ways. That may be another name for independent journalism. Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! cover the stories that are being missed by the mainstream, while hoping that they pick them up.
Profile in Pilferage: Sam Altman
Sam Altman may be the reigning king of the AI boom, but the story that matters isn’t his rise or fall. The sector will still demand scale, speed, and the right to run roughshod over the pesky public interest, no matter who wears the industry crown.
How the Tech World Turned Evil
By Timothy Noah, The New Republic
Once upon a time, they were counterculture idealists bringing power to the people. Today they’re greedy monopolists who’d sooner destroy our democracy than be reined in by government in any way—and they have to be stopped.
Children’s Publishing in the MAGA Era
By Rick Perlstein, Rickypedia
“Critical Race Theory” morphed into something much broader. In the last five-ish years, both the American Library Association and the University of Pennsylvania showed that there’s been roughly 25,000 so-called “banning incidents.” The vast majority of the books they didn’t want on the shelves were by either Black authors, brown authors, queer authors, trans authors.
Independent Media and the Hungary Election
By Jean-Paul Marthoz and A.L. Kennedy, Voxeurop
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s defeat was due to multiple reasons, but the Hungarian independent press played a significant role. Since 2010, in a media environment largely dominated by the government, it has tirelessly fought to offer the “best available version of the truth,” to deconstruct the official “alternative reality,” and to defend freedoms and the rule of law.
Here Comes the AI Money Squeeze
By Hayden Field, The Verge
Investors have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into companies like OpenAI and Anthropic to help them scale and build out their compute. Now, they’re expecting returns. After years of offering cheap or totally free access to advanced AI systems, the bill is starting to come due — and downstream, users are beginning to feel the pinch.
By Daniel Xu, The Stanford Daily
Piker, who boasts three million followers on Twitch, has become one of the most prominent political figures of the digital space. Hailed by many as a leading voice of the American left, Piker has faced criticism for his vocal support for Palestine and condemnation of Israel. “Our empire is coming to an end,” he has said. “And to that I say, ‘Thank god.’”
By Dave Karpf, Tech Policy Press
The defense-tech giant Palantir posted a 22-point manifesto declaring that Silicon Valley should abandon inclusivity, embrace military power, and stop pretending that all cultures are equal. The clear subtext is that Palantir hates all the same people that the Trump administration hates, and it is eager to provide material support to its endeavors.
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