Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

#1771 They Need You in the Dark: Information, Journalism, and the Fight Against Fascism

Feb 15, 2026
They dig into escalating government actions against reporters, from unprecedented home searches to legal memos that widen surveillance. They examine misuse of laws to target Black journalists and attacks on military and local reporting. They trace global patterns of media repression and celebrate humor and absurdist protest as tactics that break fear and disrupt authoritarian narratives.
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INSIGHT

Authoritarian Force Signals Political Weakness

  • The administration uses legal aggression as a language of domination, escalating force because it lacks noncoercive models for opposition.
  • That weakness can prompt further defiance and political blowback rather than compliance.
INSIGHT

Laws Repurposed To Intimidate Journalists

  • The Trump DOJ is repurposing statutes like the FACE Act and KKK-era laws to prosecute journalists and Black activists.
  • That legal twisting weaponizes laws away from their original protective intent toward political intimidation.
ADVICE

Keep Journalists Separate From Civil Disobedience

  • Journalists and activists should distinguish roles: organizers consent to risk, journalists should not be folded into civil disobedience without consent.
  • Defend that distinction publicly and legally to prevent prosecutions conflating reporting with protesting.
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