Notices by Dan Gillmor (dangillmor@mastodon.social)

The NY Times discovers that Trump is -- by far -- the most corrupt public official in American history. (But of course it refuses to use that word in the headline, because reasons...)

The Times will now return to its regular normalization of Trump extremism and criminality.

John Oliver did a must-see dissection of Big Journalism's pathetic weakness in the face of Trump threats and actions to curb press freedom.

https://youtu.be/07JQr5W3970?feature=shared

Secret sauce: Oliver is brilliant, and he has a superb staff of reporters and editors who bring fact and context to every show.

Seriously, Bluesky? Your new account-verification system requires signing into a Google account and uploading a photo of a state-issued ID via a Google Form? GMAFB.

In what may be its last days before becoming Trump-controlled media, CBS News covers the regime's latest demonstration of contempt for law, human rights, and the judiciary. Deporting Asians to an African nation that is all violence, all the time.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-deported-asian-migrants-south-sudan-lawyers-say/

If what you think you own has software in it and requires an Internet connection, you absolutely do not own it -- and you can expect the company that "sold" it to you to eventually screw you.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/12/garmin-ceo-hints-more-paywalls-and-enshittification-are-coming-falsely-claims-users-love-it/

It absolutely disgusts me that both California Democratic senators voted in favor of a law that will force the rest of us, through our bank accounts, to subsidize the monumentally corrupt cryptocurrency "industry" --

They have chosen to join the corruption, and I'll remember that.

Wired magazine falls for Bluesky's BS that it's decentralized. It could be, but it isn't.

This is tech journalism of the old style: credulous worship that isn't close to being justified by the reality.

Wired is better than this, or should be.

https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-jay-graber-bluesky/

President of CBS News quits rather than cave in to Trump extortion, which her former, cowardly bosses are plainly planning to do.

She has more integrity than the rest of them put together.

She also knows that extortionists don't stop when you cave. They demand more.

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5403690/cbs-news-wendy-mcmahon-resigns-paramount-trump-lawsuit-60-minutes

The law firms that have bowed to Trump have, by definition, told the world they are unethical. Why would you trust any of them with your legal affairs?

https://abovethelaw.com/2025/05/not-content-to-sell-out-their-own-principles-kirkland-wanted-all-of-biglaw-to-sell-out/

A few greedy, short-sighted Democratic senators are about to help undermine our financial system by helping the monumentally corrupt cryptocurrency industry force the rest of us to subsidize it.

Notably in the bag for the crypto bros are senators from NY and Arizona. Vile.

https://newrepublic.com/article/195001/democrats-crypto-genius-act

Musk's fascism-spewing "AI" is that way because someone made it that way. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-x-grok-white-genocide-holocaust-1235341267/

All corruption, all the time in Trump world, exhibit 47,903: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/elon-musks-regulatory-issues-begun-melt-away-trumps-second-term-rcna202848

The sporadic, no-big-deal "coverage" of Trump world's unprecedented (in U.S. history) corruption is, sadly, exactly what I expected from a press that routinely ends up normalizing extremist criminals.

Journalism's failure is far, far more than a business issue. It's also a collapse of standards.

Yo, journalists:

"A company you’ve probably never heard of is selling copies of every airline ticket issued by a travel agency in the US to...DHS and a plethora of other Federal law enforcement and immigration agencies — and who knows who else."

https://papersplease.org/wp/2025/05/08/arc-sells-airline-ticket-records-to-ice-and-others/

Qatar gift of lavishly decked out plane to Trump has to be the biggest bribe in history, no?

@jalefkowit I'm more fascinated by the idea that if you're smart enough to win, that is called cheating.

Seen on Tesla in California:

Trump regime's sabotage of the American (and global) economy is moving faster than even they probably expected.

The question is WHY they are deliberately wrecking the economy.

I have a theory: The billionaires will see a drop in paper wealth, but they're looking forward to buying everyone else's assets for pennies on the dollar when we reach the bottom, which could be very low indeed.

You think wealth concentration is bad now? (It is.) Just wait.

The Trump regime created a recession, or worse, and did it on purpose. Consumer confidence is at its lowest since the collapse of 2008.

The billionaires are salivating as they wait for everyone else to sell their assets dirt-cheap.

https://www.conference-board.org/topics/consumer-confidence

Dept. of Yeah Right: FBI "can't find" records of its extravagant purchases of hacking tools. https://www.404media.co/the-fbi-cant-find-missing-records-of-its-hacking-tools/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter