Dan Gillmor

Bio and disclosures: dangillmor.com/about/ Boosts mean I think you should see this -- usually but not always an endorsement.

Bay Area, Nara · dangillmor.com

Personal site: https://dangillmor.com
My Pixelfed photos: https://pixelfed.social/dangillmor
"Cornerstone of Democracy" Newsletter: https://cornerstone.dangillmor.com
Contact me: https://dangillmor.com/contact

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Last Notes

2025-10-03 02:16:11 CEST

So Big Journalism is definitely in the tank for the Republican spin on the shutdown.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/307/352/655/476/386/original/2b25dc0ee2cc58ff.png

2025-09-26 07:27:51 CEST

Trump regime has disappeared billions of dollars of taxpayers' money -- not even Congress has been able to trace what it's being spent on, and who's getting the loot.
Congress isn't barely trying -- Republicans are complicit and the Democrats are not just powerless but incompetent.
Some journalists from smaller organizations are trying. They don't have subpoena power.
Given Trump world's epic corruption, the unaccountable billions are plainly that way by by design.
https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/billions-taxpayer-dollars-virtually-untraceable-appropriations-trump-omb-russ-vought

2025-09-19 02:51:06 CEST

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Crucially, we need to rebuild journalism at the local level. Local newspapers are all but gone. Local TV is more and more under the thumb of Trumpists. "Pink slime" so-called news -- funded by extremists and dishonest in every way -- is growing.
We'll have to rebuild it all, collaboratively.
7/8

2025-09-19 02:51:01 CEST

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We need to support people like Josh Marshall and his colleagues, who have been punching far above their journalistic weight for two and a half decades now. (Happy 25th, Josh.) I am a paid subscriber and you should be, too. For the price of an occasional coffee, this is a pure bargain.
6/8

2025-09-19 02:50:55 CEST

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Kimmel and Colbert can start their own media operations and be hits from the first day. I'll be among the people who'll gladly pay to keep them -- and, this is key, their brilliant colleagues who do much if not most of the reporting and writing -- prominent in the emerging media ecosystem.
5/8

2025-09-16 01:51:02 CEST

All corruption, all the time in Trump world: Great NYT reporting uncovers crypto billions flowing into the pockets of Trump, his family, and his close associates.
It simply doesn't get more corrupt than this.
Will Big Journalism will consign this to the usual memory hole?
https://archive.is/xczs1

2025-09-03 03:10:35 CEST

The federal judge let Google off the hook in the antitrust case that the company supposedly lost. He said no to any serious remedy. And he indirectly killed Mozilla (Firefox and Thunderbird).
A good day for Google, and a terrible day for what's left of the open web.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/google-wont-have-to-sell-chrome-judge-rules/

2025-09-01 02:43:34 CEST

As far as I can find, only one major journalism organization -- the Guardian -- published an accurate and contextual headline describing Trump's illegal executive order on voting.
What made the difference? The Guardian added the word "unconstitutional".
Come on, journos, do your damn jobs.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/126/266/349/432/366/original/c2893327e69297e1.png

2025-08-29 04:46:04 CEST

Marriott's website absolutely refuses to let me log in -- multiple browsers get same result -- apparently because I use a VPN and block trackers.
Hyatt's website is happy to let me in.
One guess which company just got a reservation from me.

2025-08-18 01:30:31 CEST

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He'd be even more effective if he made that part of the satire even more obvious...

2025-08-18 01:06:22 CEST

California Gov. Newsom's "Truth" Social media campaign lampooning Trump is almost perfect. It would be even better if it made the self-aggrandizement more obviously a parody.
Newsom's ego may not be Trump-level, but it's annoyingly high.

2025-04-17 01:43:03 CEST

I've been making the common mistake of calling the slave-labor-and-torture facility in El Salvador a "prison" when, in fact, the correct expression is "U.S.-supported concentration camp" or "U.S.-supported gulag" -- and will use the accurate language going forward.
I urge you to do likewise.
Please read this to understand the full context:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/trump-is-sending-people-to-the-camps

2025-04-17 01:18:34 CEST

Trump's press secretary is quite the Fascist Barbie, isn't she?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/16/donald-trump-inflation-tariffs-china-trade-war-immigration-us-politics-live

2025-04-16 11:23:51 CEST

Is there any confirmation that Bluesky has obeyed Turkish government order to shut down accounts or access there? I've seen purported screenshots but I haven't seen anything that looks "official" --

2025-04-16 10:57:25 CEST

Even the right-wing Cato Institute is sounding the alarm about the Trump regime's headlong race into fascism. That's more than I can say for Big Journalism, which mostly continues to ever-so-politely do both-sides stenography.
https://www.cato.org/blog/where-writ-courts-does-not-run
For god's sake, journalists, take a stand. Now.

2025-04-16 01:48:12 CEST

Garrett Graff asks if the American experiment has "reached the end of the road?"
If it has, one reason will have been the sickening failure of institutions -- like journalism -- that should have stood firm but chose to capitulate or pretend it wasn't their job.
https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/has-america-reached-the-end-of-the-road-a1d4feac8041058a

2025-04-15 04:03:35 CEST

Big Journalism is still doing stenography instead of showing the reality of the Trump regime's headlong race into fascism.
At TechDirt, @npub14j8…pjuf shows how journalism could work if it located a spine.
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/14/trump-bukele-plot-us-citizen-detention-in-salvadoran-torture-camps-while-defying-supreme-court-via-gibberish-responses-to-reporters/
Key quote: "If you don’t see all of this as one of the darkest days in American history, in which the President is openly embracing disappearing people without due process in the name of 'liberty,' you are a part of the problem. Fascism has risen in America..."

2025-03-14 08:33:49 CET

Musk's latest amplification of fascist contempt for humanity is a reminder that if you are still on his evil platform -- especially if you're posting there -- you are supporting his vile business.
https://meidasnews.com/news/elon-musk-retweet-hitler-didnt-murder-millions-of-people-public-sector-workers-did
This goes 10x for journalists, who mock their craft and demonstrate a special kind of indifference to ethics and morality by sticking around.
Stop pretending otherwise.

2025-03-14 05:50:14 CET

Dear journalists, you demonstrate financial illiteracy when you say that so-and-so "lost" gazillions of dollars after the company shares he owns dropped in value.
He didn't lose a dime, because the gains were illusory unless he sold the stock or borrowed against it (riskier) when value was high.

2025-03-12 07:37:55 CET

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"free" guarantees enshittification.

2025-03-11 00:57:05 CET

The Electronic Frontier Foundation posts a reminder that "Yes, You Have the Right to Film ICE" -- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/yes-you-have-right-film-ice
At this point, we arguably have a duty to film ICE.

2025-03-11 00:43:45 CET

One reason I'm glad I canceled Netflix and Amazon Prime is that I don't support these craven companies' knee-bending to Trump world. Examples: Amazon's blatantly corrupt Melania Trump film deal and now the Netflix signing of a "comedian" who thinks racism is funny.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/10/tony-hinchcliffe-trump-netflix-00222074

2025-03-07 12:41:41 CET

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/120/962/653/810/460/original/b4014076649f4cae.png

2025-03-07 05:06:29 CET

Did Zelensky shout at anyone during that Oval Office ambush?
I ask because journalists are routinely referring to what happened as a "shouting match" even though the abuse came from Trump and Vance, as far as I can tell.

2025-03-07 02:36:08 CET

If you publish your anti-extremist, pro-democracy newsletter on Substack -- a platform that was funded in large part by Trump-loving VCs and is run by people who have no problem helping right-wing extremists spread and monetize their bile -- you are not just missing the point. You are helping the people you say you oppose.

2025-01-28 13:09:22 CET

Before Google decided to let extremists rename bodies of water, it used common sense.
From 2008: "...if a ruler announced that henceforth the Pacific Ocean would be named after her mother, we would not add that placemark unless and until the name came into common usage."
https://publicpolicy.googleblog.com/2008/04/how-google-determines-names-for-bodies.html

2025-01-24 09:26:09 CET

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Ghost, Beehiv, buttondown, Medium, WordPress, among others

2025-01-21 02:52:13 CET

So one of Trump's first actions was to pardon everyone who tried to violently overthrow the United States government four years ago.
Think about that, journalists, as you continue to normalize a regime that plans to wipe out what you do (if you do it with integrity, that is).

2024-11-30 01:45:02 CET

Australia's under-16 ban on social media isn't just absurd. It's dangerous in almost every way.
It denies a parental role in child-raising.
It's a gift to the media barons, especially the Murdochs, who control legacy media and will profit hugely.
And it is huge step toward government control of speech of all kinds, because age requirements require age verification.
Age verification blows away all privacy. it amounts to a license to read and speak.
And licenses can be taken away.

2024-11-23 01:48:22 CET

@npub13ye…fhsw is one of the most tech-savvy and energy-savvy members of Congress. He's here -- and active -- on Mastodon. I recommend you follow him.

2024-10-24 10:08:25 CEST

There is a single main reason why this poll showed voters to have fond memories of the Trump presidency:
Journalism has failed to do its job in the past four years.
The most evil politician in modern American history may soon regain the White House and end our democracy in a storm of blood and tears.
If that happens, I will harbor a particular loathing for the people who turned a craft that I revere into a handmaiden of dictatorship.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-leads-harris-wsj-poll-779f8516?st=2UGVou&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

2024-10-09 02:03:57 CEST

Musk steals a Twitter account from a user and redirects it into Trump propaganda.
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/08/elon-musk-is-now-seizing-other-peoples-twitter-accounts-to-promote-donald-trump/
Meanwhile, lots of journalists continue to directly support him by remaining active there.

2024-08-28 02:04:49 CEST

Zuckerberg goes on bended knee to the Republican disinformation brigades. This would be pathetic except that it's a signal he's decided to use his almost limitless power to help Republicans in the elections.
This, after disbanding all efforts to root out extremism on his platform. He is the epitome of bad faith.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/27/media/mark-zuckerberg-election-season-republicans/index.html
It's time to break up all of the biggest tech companies -- they have become a clear and present danger to democracy and, by extension, freedom of expression.

2024-08-24 19:41:19 CEST

Does any political reporter subtract more value from a major news outlet than Peter Baker does from the New York Times?
His work -- particularly the "news analysis" (a label that pretends it's not commentary) -- is a caricature of political journaiism. He states the obvious with savvy intensity on horse races and both-sides-ism.
Admittedly he has competition, but I think he's in a class of his own.
Latest example:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/018/207/432/111/295/original/f8b1ded78469e34d.png

2024-08-22 20:22:52 CEST

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This is a good point. I'm not sure what I can do about it, but I'm looking into the issue. @npub16nr…879s

2024-08-21 18:47:22 CEST

In an otherwise fine commentary pointing out Trump's pathological lying about crime, the Washington Post never uses the word "lie" -- https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/21/trump-crime-fear/

2024-08-21 18:43:23 CEST

Wall Street banks have realized what suckers Elon Musk made of them in the Twitter buyout. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/21/banks-realize-backing-elons-twitter-buyout-is-close-to-the-worst-buyout-of-all-time/

2024-08-21 17:24:05 CEST

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Law enforcement people love Trump because his policy is to let police do anything they want, anytime they want. (Unless it's to bring to justice his violent mobs...) @npub1aqs…nar4

2024-08-21 01:21:03 CEST

Big fact-checking operation headline: "Kamala Harris says Donald Trump ‘intends to cut’ Medicare. This ignores Trump’s repeated pledges."
It should have added to that headline:
"This fact-check ignores Trump's repeated lies about almost everything."

2024-08-20 20:07:32 CEST

Big Journalism is engaged in a parody of fact checking at this point.
Trump gets ho-hum corrections -- often granularly parsed to give him endless benefits of the doubt -- and the fact-checkers don't even pretend to get to every lie.
Democrats get granular parsing, too. But the goal is to find falsehoods and never, ever give the benefit of the doubt.
Fact-checking is a sadly broken both-sides (even when one is lying) enterprise.

2024-08-20 06:33:04 CEST

Maureen Dowd isn't just a raging hypocrite. She's illiterate. She doesn't know what a coup is. And she was one of the countless NY Times people yelling at Biden to drop out.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/992/474/454/104/476/original/a4f74a5b069f1957.png

2024-08-20 05:15:35 CEST

Are the Dems really going to put Biden on after midnight Eastern time?

2024-08-19 22:49:29 CEST

The Republican Party is using every trick in the book to torpedo Harris, including support for a third-party candidate who will take votes only from Harris.
https://apnews.com/article/republican-lawyers-cornel-west-arizona-88cd1b4f698715a3071a93b5e1526074

2024-08-17 05:37:09 CEST

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sorry about the problems... This is currently in shakedown mode! @npub1h3l…knuy

2024-08-16 17:58:36 CEST

Latest reminder that if you buy something that the maker calls "smart" you are setting yourself up for being ripped off.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/smart-sous-vide-cooker-to-start-charging-2-month-for-10-year-old-companion-app/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
I go out of my way to avoid "smart" stuff -- but it's increasingly difficult to find.
Someone will make a lot of money when they open a store that sells things that purchasers fully own.

2024-08-16 17:23:39 CEST

I realize this is a sign of aging, but some of the activities that have become Olympic "sports" are just ludicrous.

2024-08-15 23:31:44 CEST

Which TV channels ran Trump's speech-masquerading-as-press-conference live?

2024-08-15 18:27:33 CEST

Pretty evil, I would say, for Eric Schmidt -- former Google CEO -- to be this brazen about how Big Tech sees the rest of the world, as a resource to be plundered.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220658/google-eric-schmidt-stanford-talk-ai-startups-openai

2024-08-15 18:25:44 CEST

Harris' (apparent) proposal to make a crime out of grocery "price gouging" could be a major unforced error.
The details will tell us, but we haven't seen an actual plan yet.
What we need is to break up the monopolies and cartels that run pretty much every sector of our economy and restore true competition.
Granular interference with markets won't cut it.

2024-08-15 17:27:09 CEST

When I stopped being active at Twitter, I had more than 45,000 followers and a moderate amount of engagement (replies, retweets, etc.).
I have a third fewer followers here, and at least 10 times the genuine engagement. Sure, some bots, but most of it is genuine -- and useful.
I no longer see what (some) people I respect are saying publicly. I miss their thoughts, and wish they'd recognize that by staying active there they are supporting a dangerous extremist.
They feel trapped. They're not.

2024-08-12 00:05:59 CEST

It's beyond comprehension that, less than two weeks after a blockbuster Washington Post report -- which strongly suggests Trump took a $10 million bribe from a foreign government during the 2016 election -- other Big Journalism organizations have made clear their indifference, by not following up.
No, sorry, it's not beyond comprehension at all. It's just what you'd expect from journalists at this point.

2024-07-09 08:29:07 CEST

As Russian iphone customers lose their ability to use VPNs to get around the Putin regime's censorship, it's essential to remember that Apple shares the responsibility for this repression.
The company's "use the app store or do without" policy is a choke point that dictatorships happily leverage against their citizens.
Putin is a monster, but he counts on the control freakery in Cupertino.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/russia-forces-apple-to-remove-dozens-of-vpn-apps-from-app-store/

2024-06-27 01:52:22 CEST

Paramount wiped out MTV News archives, and is now taking down old TV clips from the Internet.
Big Media (and small sites, for that matter) won't preserve the archives, so the rest of us will have to do it.
We need to get organized, and create a system that preserves the past. The Copyright Cartel will go nuts, so we need a safe way around them.
I hope smart people are working on this, right now. Because media companies don't give a damn about history.
https://www.indiewire.com/news/business/paramount-taking-down-entire-websites-tv-clips-mtv-comedy-central-cmt-1235020544/

2024-06-21 06:41:22 CEST

Stanford University's contempt for journalism it doesn't like is on full display here.
Just reprehensible, and it should put to rest some of the longstanding mythology about the school's political leanings. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/stanford-presses-prosecution-student-journalist-19523761.php

2024-06-05 11:46:53 CEST

A classic in arrogant web design: NY Times constantly puts a popup over articles in my mobile browser, telling me why I should install the app. The "negative" choice is to say "Not right now" when what I really want is a "Never" option.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/563/371/851/312/865/original/024b2bbdbc746ae5.png

2024-05-21 01:27:14 CEST

So you deleted those iPhone photos years ago, because you wanted them gone forever?
Apple obviously kept them around anyway.
And you trust Apple? Give that some thought...
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24161152/apple-ios-17-photo-bug