Does CNN Deserve To Be Banned From the White House?
Plus: why parents are abandoning public schools, whether AI requires government intervention, and what happened to fusionism in the conservative movement.
This week, editors Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch are joined by senior editor Stephanie Slade to discuss President Donald Trump's decision to ban CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from the White House over coverage he dislikes. They examine the First Amendment implications of punishing news organizations for their reporting and Trump's broader record on free speech. They also examine the growing willingness of both parties to use government power against media they dislike.
Next, the editors discuss why parents continue to leave public schools and what a recent New York Times story reveals about the limits of trying to reform failing schools from within. Then, Slade discusses her new book, Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right, and how the conservative movement moved away from its traditional commitment to limited government, free markets, and individual liberty. Finally, a listener challenges the panel to explain how libertarians would confront a genuine existential threat from AI or another collective-action problem.
0:00—Trump bans media outlets from the White House.
17:29—New York Times story on the failure of public schools
38:39—Listener question on AI risk
50:56—Fusionism and the conservative movement
1:01:33—Weekly cultural recommendations
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Mentioned in the Podcast:
"Purposely Negative," by Liz Wolfe"May Officials Exclude Journalists from Press Events Based on Disapproval of Journalists' Speech?" by Eugene Volokh"Two D.C. Circuit Judges' Reservations About the Circuit's White House Press Pool / AP / 'Gulf of America' Decision," by Eugene Volokh"Trump's Threats To Yank Broadcast Licenses Are Part of a Speech-Chilling Intimidation Campaign," by Jacob Sullum"The FCC's Paramount/Skydance Decision Aims To Reshape Broadcast Journalism by Bureaucratic Fiat," by Jacob Sullum"By Settling Trump's Laughable Lawsuit Against CBS, Paramount Strikes a Blow at Freedom of the Press," by Jacob Sullum"Pentagon's Foolish Press Policy Might Encourage Tougher Journalism," by J.D. Tuccille"The Pentagon's New Press Policy Is Absurd," by Robby Soave"Why the Courts Will 86 the Flagrantly Unconstitutional Charges Against James Comey," by Jacob Sullum"Trump Is Targeting Media and Chilling Free Speech," by Steven Greenhut
"Nikole Hannah-Jones Doesn't Understand 'The Idea That Parents Should Decide' What Schools Teach," by Robby Soave"The New York Times' Nikole Hannah-Jones Inadvertently Makes the Case for School Choice," by Billy Binion"Even Social Engineers Don't Want Their Kids Used as Demographic Pawns," by Matt Welch"Brownstone Brooklyn's Racial Divide: Why Are the Schools So Segregated?" by Jim Epstein
"Will AI Destroy Humanity?" by Gene Epstein"Countering the Threat of the Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence," by Ronald Bailey"Bjorn Lomborg: How Our Climate Fixation Hurts the World's Poor," by Nick Gillespie
"Why the Right Is Embracing State Power," by Nick Gillespie and Stephanie Slade"J.D. Vance and the Politics of Victimhood," by Stephanie Slade