Check Your Sources
Action 72 - April 14
We need to know the truth about what is happening in our country. While I still want to support some of the left-leaning mainstream media (I became a monthly donor to NPR shortly after the inauguration), the lack of complete coverage of the administration’s actions and the resistance to it is disheartening.
Last week, I wrote a letter thanking the Philadelphia Inquirer for covering the Hands Off rallies. But coverage nationwide was abysmal.
Lessons eight and nine from Tim Snyder’s On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the Twentieth Century are Believe in Truth and Investigate, respectively. In February, I shared a list of trustworthy news sources. So many more have appeared or come across my desk, and my inbox has become a little overwhelming. Truthfully, the more crowded my inbox, the less I read. It’s time for me to winnow and ensure I am getting what I need to stay informed, aware, not overwhelmed, and see progress (in other words, not just bad news).
I’ve annotated a few of my top picks from Substack. Most of these are free subscriptions - I pay for one or two to support the work. Pay if you can, read even if you can’t. Today’s action: subscribe to the newsletters I need and unsubscribe (on Substack or email) from the stuff I don’t.
For context and history about the administration's most recent actions, see Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American.
For tracking anti-trans legislation and actions at the Federal and State levels: Erin in the Morning.
For a roundup of the day's good news (including pushback against the administration), Jess Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water. Jess’s Celebrate This was particularly long yesterday - so many losses for the administration in courts across the country, so many successful actions by people from all walks of life. It’s a balm to read at the end of a day of resisting.
For a comprehensive list of actions and protests around the country, We the People Dissent can’t be beat (how do they get all that information so quickly?!)
For a solid legal analysis of the constitutional issues we are facing and the unpacking of court decisions, former prosecutor and MSNBC legal commentator Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse is the clearest I have seen.
For a general rundown of the week’s news, I recommend Scott Dworkin’s Good News That’s Bad for Trump.
News analysis and commentary from reputable journalists can be found in The Bulwark and The Contrarian, both started by former mainstream journalists. \
This is a lot, I know. My commitment is to read two per day and glance through the rest. I also subscribe to some artists and nature photographers on Facebook, so I see beautiful things on my screens. Here’s a link to the “EveryHeron” feed on Bluesky—that’s where I go when things get really bad.
Here’s what I’m dumping:
Any newsletter from an elected official. I’m tired of the requests for money and lack of visible action.
The Washington Post (gave up my subscription long ago, but it still comes into my inbox. Super frustrating because everything is behind a paywall, and I am not interested in giving Jeff Bezos more of my money.
The seven or eight separate NY Times newsletters I get. Just, why?
I will also use this low-key week to unsubscribe from many of the non-profit and commercial email lists I’m on.
We are taking action for the first 100 days of this presidency. Our actions exemplify resilience and resistance - they may be overtly political or economic, or focus on community building or direct care. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Please send me your ideas, and let me know how it’s going.