Optimism isn’t easy to come by these days, especially when even what one might assume to be upstanding, responsible and auspiced institutions reveal themselves to be little more than merely as minimally principled as anyone they might otherwise come out against.
We thought we had a fighter in Maine governor Janet Mills, who even THE NEW YORK POST’s Ryan King was unable not to describe in terms many might classify as heroic:
On Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order that effectively banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports or else get cut off from federal funds. But top athletic associations in The Pine Tree State quickly resisted Trump’s order. A few weeks later, news of a transgender competitor from Cumberland’s Greely High School — competing under the name “Katie” — won the Class B girls’ state championship in pole vaulting by a considerable margin, got the administration’s hackles up.
Trump then confronted Mills at a governor’s summit later that month, chastising her and warning that she “better comply.” Mills was defiant and shot back, “See you in court.”
It was a seminal and dramatic moment and elevated Mills’s national presence, especially with a party with a significant sector that is increasingly seeking someone in power to actually have the desire and the huevos to even speak words to that effect.
So it was that much more disappointing–even demoralizing–to learn how Mills was effectively kneecapped not by her opposition, but by her own state officials, as King further chronicled:
Earlier this month, the Trump administration followed up and blocked the UMS, a network of eight public universities in the state, from receiving funds from the Department of Agriculture. Then on Wednesday, the Department of Education, which Trump has since moved to dismantle, warned that the UMS had 10 days to comply with the administration’s policy restricting transgender competition in female sports or lose funding. Shortly thereafter, the UMS agreed to comply with Trump’s executive order, something to which the NCAA and others had already agreed to follow.
That’s apparently still not enough to satisfy the massive ego of Fat Orange Jesus, as the beginning of King’s slanted piece from yesterday began:
President Trump on Saturday demanded a “full-throated” apology from Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) before his administration can settle its dispute with the state for defying his executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
“While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled.”
And the reason he has reason to expect what might be deemed as public groveling, that’s because we’ve already seen such capitulation come to lightthis weekend, as CBS NEW YORK’s Ali Bauma and Derick Waller reported Saturday morning:
Columbia University has announced a new mask ban, the hiring of special officers and other new policies, some of which are in line with the Trump administration’s demands.
Thursday marked the deadline that the Trump administration gave Columbia to comply with its list of demands before even discussing the $400 million in funding that the federal government pulled due to what it called the school’s failure to protect students from antisemitism.
“Our response to the government agencies outlines the substantive work we’ve been doing over the last academic year to advance our mission, ensure uninterrupted academic activities, and make every student, faculty, and staff member safe and welcome on our campus,” Interim President Katrina Armstrong wrote in an email to students Friday.
The response has triggered concern and outrage from entities both heavily liberal like MOTHER JONES and moderately conservative like THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS. Members of the university community ain’t thrilled either, as the CBS duo further shared. But as listeners to THE NEW YORK TIMES’ THE DAILY heard in sobering detail this morning, even for well-heeled Ivy League institutions the threat of losing money (in this case a not inconsequential $400 million) was enough to get them to take the proverbial knee.
Yet to decide what to do offically is fellow Ivy League member Penn, whom THE HILL’s Lexi Lonas Cochran reported last week is looking at a nine-figure gap of their own:
Some federal funding has been paused to the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) over its policies about transgender athletes. A senior White House official said about $175 million of federal funding has been stopped for the university. The official condemned Penn for previously allowing a transgender woman to compete on its female swimming team, “overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room.”
Call me overly dubious, but when a bully pulpit uses a reference like “fully intact male” in its communique, that’s a visual that’s hard to unsee. And the fact that Penn has yet to formally respond in the wake of its sister school’s gut call leads me down the path that a similarly exhausted response from downtown Philly is forthcoming.
And it may very well be first reported by a CBS entity as was the Columbia decision, because they’re in the cross-hairs of yet another decision where money is being weaponized, as RI’s Cameron Coats reported this morning:
“Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” Those words from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday in a direct warning to all license holders.
In an interview, Carr suggested to Bloomberg that the Commission could block deals if those companies continue promoting DEI programs that conflict with new federal directives under the Trump administration. He said, “If there’s businesses out there that are still promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination, I really don’t see a path forward where the FCC could reach the conclusion that approving the transaction is going to be in the public interest.” While Carr was referring to several high-profile transactions outside the sphere of radio currently under FCC review, including Paramount Global’s proposed merger with Skydance Media, the statement stands as an example for all.
Yep, the Paramount Global that controls CBS News and, frankly, an entity that is losing both time and patience with their battle for ethical reporting standards. But, then again, it’s not like they’re alone in such ‘tude. This morning our friend and resident Philadelphia genius Evan Shapiro yet again shone light into how common this has become in his weekly MEDIA WAR AND PEACE newsletter:
National commercial broadcasters, at that time, held themselves to the same standards as PBS. For the most part, News and revenue divisions were kept at arms-length by the large Media corporations that owned them. Early on in Big Corporate Media, I personally believe News was seen by its owners as “a responsibility.” This is evidenced by the relatively unvarnished coverage major networks and Media outlets gave the Viet Nam War and Watergate – which cemented public opinion against both and precipitated the end of the war and Nixon.
However, every year since these examples of the Fourth Estate successfully watch-dogging governmental power, Mainstream corporate Media (in collusion with corporately-owned politicians) worked hard to reverse the stream – forcing News to generate profits, eliminating the Fairness Doctrine, and with it any form of accountability. Simultaneously, reactionary forces within the body politic unleashed an unrelenting assault on the very concept of Public Service Media – defunding PBS, CPB, and NPR every chance they get, even gleefully attacking Big Bird and Elmo (it’s like I’m making it up, and yet I am most certainly not).
As a direct result of this neglect and abuse – after adding a firehose of unregulated social media misinformation bubbles – Americans’ trust in their News and their public institutions fell like Buzzfeed’s stock price – now at the lowest point since Gallup started keeping track. Americans now trust News Media less than Big Tech, the Supreme Court, even the current President.
But unlike the politicans, colleges and even the news organizations that are merely pissing and moaning, Shapiro actually has posited a solution and a ray of hope, one founded in a theory that is supported by the newsletter’s lead paragraph:
“Correlations and cluster analyses show that high levels of secure funding for Public Media systems and strong structural protections for the political and economic independence of those systems are consistently and positively correlated with healthy democracies.”
– Funding Democracy; Neff & Pickard
The entire Shapiro piece, as usual, is worth a deep dive, but I call out in particular his refreshingly viable solution:
Hey Billionaires, Almost Billionaires, or influential Friends of Billionaires… Let’s buy CNN! Let’s buy CNN and convert it into a true Public Service Media organization.
Two years ago, CNN was valued at $2.3 billion, a 48% drop from two years prior. Unquestionably, its value has continued to drop since. In my humble opinion, Warner Brothers Discovery, or as I affectionately call them, Disco Bros, is up for sale. However, I suspect that long-standing billionaire club member Sir John Malone and wannabe billionaire Doctor Zaslove would love to part with CNN – and get as far away from that political hand grenade as they can.
Without negotiating against ourselves here, let’s say we’d have to spend $2.5 billion to close the deal. THE NETWORK IS PROFITABLE. Mark Thompson, the CNN CEO, used to run the OG of OG Public Service Media, the BB-motherfucking-C. That means, post-purchase, we can spend the next four years strategically converting CNN’s global commercial enterprise into a News organization organized around (wait for it) Public Service.
Radical? Hell, yeah. But in terms of hard-and-fast economic sensibility, one would be hard-pressed to poke holes in it. And considering the kind of money that collectively Ivy League graduates have earned over the years, it’s not all that unrealistic a goal.
And while they’re at it, maybe they might consider floating a few spare hundreds of millions toward their alma maters as well so they can at least have the opportunity to tell those in charge, not to mention their alumni and donors, what they really think about the kinds of people that would literally use extortion as a way to advance ideological agendas steeped in anything but outright racism and misoygny?
Unless, of course, they already have.
Until next time…