Pounding Beers in a Shed, and Other Dispatches from the War on Free Speech
Last episode we discussed the campaign to overturn the Supreme Court decision that protects reporters’ ability to criticize and investigate people in power.
But even with that decision still in place, reporter David Enrich has discovered a shocking wave of legal attacks that is being waged on journalists in towns and cities across the country. These are often reporters at tiny, local outlets, trying to hold people accountable in their communities.
And these legal claims don’t even have to succeed - and they frequently don’t - to shut down reporters.
Plus, Brian waxes poetic about the first amendment, under the night sky.
This is part two of our series about David Enrich’s reporting from his book “Murder the Truth”. Listen to part one first – it’s called “Freedom of the press is great, until you’re the target.”
In our newsletter this week – Brian tells a personal story about how his lawyers helped him fend off a legal threat. Check that out at: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything
“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
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27:49
Freedom of the press is great, until you're the target
For decades, a Supreme Court decision called New York Times vs Sullivan was widely beloved by people across the political spectrum. Hailed as a decision that gives the first amendment teeth and sets our country apart, as a place that prizes free speech.
But recently, right under our noses, some of the same people who once sang Times v Sullivan's praises have turned against it.
The story of the growing movement that is trying to get the Supreme Court to overturn perhaps the strongest protection for speech and the press in America.
This is part one of a two part series about the book Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful, by Times investigative editor David Enrich.
Sign up for our newsletter here to hear about one of Brian’s own legal battles: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything
“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
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41:26
The masterpiece Prince documentary Netflix won’t let you see.
The best documentary filmmaker in America spent nearly five years of his life making a nine-hour masterpiece for Netflix.
It will never see the light of day.
After a nasty estate battle, the series won't be released. No one will ever see it.
In his first sit-down interview about this scandal, the filmmaker Ezra Edelman seeks catharsis – if not closure – in the fight for truth and control over the life story of Prince.
Thanks to “Pablo Torre Finds Out” for this incredible interview.
“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
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48:42
He quit journalism to fight authoritarianism. How’s that going?
Last year, we did an episode with Barton Gellman, who talked about the war games he was running with high-level military leaders and government officials to prepare for a second Trump term.
A bunch of you have been asking us to have Barton back, to find out what he’s doing, now that the second Trump term is here. So we called him up.
Barton works at the Brennan Center for Justice.
“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
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25:39
A Rant or a Slant: When Should Reporters Speak From the Heart?
It’s easy to get frustrated with the charade reporters are supposed to keep up, where they pretend they don’t have opinions or feelings or any kind of human thoughts about a story they’re telling. Plenty of journalists have been trying to break out of that charade. But the decision to do that: it can be a fraught one, with real implications.
Dana Ballout struggled with this on a story she was investigating about Hassan Diab – a sociology professor who’s living as a free man in Canada, yet is convicted of a terrible crime in France. Dana and her co-host Alex Atack open up about their reporting on the series The Copernic Affair, and why Dana ultimately cut her own opinions out of the show, even though her co-host and editors wanted to include them.
And this prompts Brian to revisit his own experience dropping the charade in a previous podcast he made with Hamza Syed, for The New York Times and Serial: The Trojan Horse Affair.
You can check out The Copernic Affair wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.canadaland.com/shows/the-copernic-affair/.
Same with The Trojan Horse Affair: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html
To get the phrase from Hamza’s interview that we’re asking people to remix into something danceable, sign up for Brian’s newsletter here: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything
“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
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Propagandist? Truth teller? Influencer? Question Everything unravels the contested work of journalists and the moral complexities surrounding the stories that impact us all.
Hosted by Brian Reed (S-Town, This American Life, The Trojan Horse Affair).
For outtakes and an inside peek inside the editorial conundrums that confront journalists every day, sign up for our newsletter at www.kcrw.com/questioneverything.
Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
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