■ Minnesota’s governor and the Minneapolis mayor are being investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring to impede law enforcement efforts through public statements that they made. Critics say it is retaliation for free speech.
■ Government censorship of free speech and academic freedom on U.S. college campuses, powered by a full-blown ideological campaign against higher education, reached unprecedented heights in 2025, a new PEN America report has found.
■ A federal judge presiding over a hearing concerning Trump administration detentions denounced cabinet members for “not honoring the First Amendment.”
Control issues. Federal agents in Minneapolis cannot arrest peaceful protesters or use crowd-control tools against them, a federal judge has ruled.
■ Sen. Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon claiming that attempts to punish and censure him after his participation in a video telling U.S. troops they have the right to resist unlawful orders are “unconstitutional.”
■ President Trump is considering an executive order to bar other networks from showing other college football games during televised coverage of the annual Army-Navy game.
Control issues. Federal agents in Minneapolis cannot arrest peaceful protesters or use crowd-control tools against them, a federal judge has ruled.
■ Sen. Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon claiming that attempts to punish and censure him after his participation in a video telling U.S. troops they have the right to resist unlawful orders are “unconstitutional.”
■ President Trump is considering an executive order to bar other networks from showing other college football games during televised coverage of the annual Army-Navy game.
■ The BBC has asked a Florida court to toss out President Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against the broadcaster.
■ A jury has found that a Tennessee high-school student’s suspension for sharing memes of his school’s principal on Instagram violated the First Amendment.
Being the news. When CBS News editor Bari Weiss told her producers “We need to be the news,” she succeeded, but not in the way she hoped, according to The New York Times.
■ The White House warned CBS News that if it did not run a Trump interview “in full” it would be sued, The New York Times reported.
■ CBS aired a “60 Minutes” report Sunday on deportations that it had abruptly pulled a month ago.
Loyal to a fault? Applicants for jobs with Stars and Stripes are being asked if they agree with Trump administration policies, raising concerns about the news outlet’s editorial independence.
■ Press advocates have condemned the Pentagon’s push to take editorial control of Stars and Stripes.
■ U.S. journalists are facing war-zone conditions covering conflicts here at home, concluded Editor & Publisher in a report.
■ The highly unusual raid on the home of a Washington Post journalist has press-freedom champions worried it could chill future reporting efforts.
Saving face. Bowing to pressure, Elon Musk’s X will restrict the ability to use its A.I. chatbot Grok in generating explicit images of real people.
■ A Texas teachers union has sued the state over the “wave of retaliation” against public school employees that included investigations and dismissals over Charlie Kirk-related social media comments.
■ A jury has found that a Tennessee high-school student’s suspension for sharing memes of his school’s principal on Instagram violated the First Amendment.
Being the news. When CBS News editor Bari Weiss told her producers “We need to be the news,” she succeeded, but not in the way she hoped, according to The New York Times.
■ The White House warned CBS News that if it did not run a Trump interview “in full” it would be sued, The New York Times reported.
■ CBS aired a “60 Minutes” report Sunday on deportations that it had abruptly pulled a month ago.
■ The MAGA plan to take over television is just getting started, according to Jim Rutenberg in an extensive report for The New York Times Magazine.
■ Tennessee prison officials must grant expanded press access to state-run executions, a judge has ruled.
Loyal to a fault? Applicants for jobs with Stars and Stripes are being asked if they agree with Trump administration policies, raising concerns about the news outlet’s editorial independence.
■ Press advocates have condemned the Pentagon’s push to take editorial control of Stars and Stripes.
■ U.S. journalists are facing war-zone conditions covering conflicts here at home, concluded Editor & Publisher in a report.
■ The highly unusual raid on the home of a Washington Post journalist has press-freedom champions worried it could chill future reporting efforts.
■ A professor at the University of Pennsylvania explained in The Conversation why the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s closure exposes a growing threat to democracy.
Saving face. Bowing to pressure, Elon Musk’s X will restrict the ability to use its A.I. chatbot Grok in generating explicit images of real people.
■ A Texas teachers union has sued the state over the “wave of retaliation” against public school employees that included investigations and dismissals over Charlie Kirk-related social media comments.
■ An Alabama public library lost state funding after it refused to move several books deemed “sexually explicit” by the state’s library service board, including The Handmaid’s Tale, out of its teen section.
■ Funding cuts have forced PBS to shut down its weekend newscasts.
■ Cleveland State University is facing a free-speech lawsuit after shutting down its student-run campus radio station.
■ Funding cuts have forced PBS to shut down its weekend newscasts.
■ Cleveland State University is facing a free-speech lawsuit after shutting down its student-run campus radio station.
