Creating a Sword

(Out of a Pen)

When we opened the first office of the Center for Investigative Reporting in downtown Oakland in the fall of 1977, we were simply exercising our rights under the First Amendment.

We felt free to pursue whatever stories we wished, yet we had no outlet, publication, broadcast channel — nowhere to sell those stories.

That was its own form of freedom.

Very soon, we were busy looking into a range of topics, negotiating with various outlets, and raising money for our fledgling non-profit.

We were uniquely an organization devoted not only to supporting investigative journalism but doing it.

And that took money. Luckily, there were a few wealthy individuals and small foundations ready and willing to come to our aid. Over the decades, we acquired our share of enemies as well as friends. Some people considered us heroes, albeit with flaws, others branded us as traitors.

We persisted.

Establishing the Center was a conscious act in exercising our rights under the First Amendment half a century ago. Today’s free speech heroes, flawed though they may be, include the late-night talk show hosts standing up to a regime hell-bent on shutting them down, directly or indirectly through regulatory pressure.

Every era requires champions to preserve these important rights. The details of and motivations for their actions may be hazy, but I commend Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel for standing up for the rights that the rest of us continue to depend on.

HEADLINES:

• Senate Candidate James Talarico Pulled In $2.5 Million After Unaired Colbert Interview (Forbes)

• Stephen Colbert’s CBS Reveal Should Send A Chill Down Your Spine (HuffPost)

• Stephen Colbert uses his show to roast CBS in feud over FCC rules (WP)

• A late-night monologue, a shocking suspension – and a reinstatement. Jimmy Kimmel’s still taking risks (CNN)

• What to know about the ‘equal time’ rule Stephen Colbert says led CBS to pull his Talarico interview (AP)

• FCC Chairman Confirms “Enforcement Action” Underway Against ABC’s ‘The View’, Calls Stephen Colbert-James Talarico Incident A “Hoax” (Deadline)

• The Latest Ploy to Help Republicans Win Elections (Atlantic)

• Democratic-led cities move to block ICE, setting up clash with Trump (WP)

• Minnesotans Just Won a Huge Court Victory Against ICE (Slate)

• Environmental groups sue Trump’s EPA over repeal of landmark climate finding (Guardian)

• Andrew arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office as King says ‘law must take its course’ (BBC)

• 8 confirmed dead after Tahoe avalanche (SFC)

• Why it’s becoming so expensive to buy a car in America (WP)

• Trump Bets on Diplomacy Without Diplomats (NYT)

• Iran and the US reached an understanding on main “guiding principles” in talks aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, but that does not mean a deal is imminent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said. (Reuters)

• Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran (Axios)

• U.S. Military Moves Into Place for Possible Strikes in Iran (NYT)

• Ukraine peace talks end abruptly after Zelenskiy says Russia is stalling (Reuters)

• ‘Difficult’ Russia-Ukraine peace talks end without breakthrough (BBC)

• Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts (Guardian)

• As Israel takes steps to claim land in West Bank, U.S. stands by (WP)

• OpenAI’s acquisition of OpenClaw signals the beginning of the end of the ChatGPT era (VentureBeat)

• China’s DeepSeek year (Economist)

• Coworker Laid Off Solely For Performance-Related Reasons Warns AI Coming For Everyone (Onion)