Sometimes, a sea change takes place in the minds of the public, elected officials and media pundits. Long overdue, that seems to be underway now with regard to the American prison system and the war on drugs.
For decades, politicians competed to see who could be tougher on crime – who was more in favor of locking up the most people for the longest stretches – and the public and media, for the most part, cheered them on. Now even Attorney General Eric Holder has called mass incarceration a moral and economic failure. What happened?
Tireless activists, educators and authors happened: not least of them Michelle Alexander, whose hugely influential book The New Jim Crow was championed by Truthout. But I’m proud to say I believe that Truthout’s own reporting also played a part in this shift.
From Victoria Law’s coverage of long-term solitary confinement in California, to Dina Rasor’s columns on prison privatization, to Maya Schenwar’s deeply personal accounts of the cruel effects of imprisonment on human beings, we’ve treated this as an important issue for years.
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Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
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We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
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