Indy Digest: Dec. 18, 2025
A year ago in this space, I wrote that—as Donald Trump was preparing to begin his second term as president—I was deeply concerned about the diminishing state of press freedoms in the United States.
Of course, we now have ample confirmation that this concern was justified.
In his first 11-plus months back in the White House, Trump and his administration have made it crystal clear that they’re interested in power and glorification, and have no interest in even pretending to believe in the First Amendment.
I could fill this space, and then some, with a list of all of the steps they’ve taken to diminish press freedoms, from the Pentagon-access policies to 60 Minutes to the Jimmy Kimmel debacle—but if you’ve been paying attention, you already know about all of these things. Instead, I’d like to discuss something you may not know about: the removal of a single word from a government website, and what that signifies.
Tom Jones, a senior media writer for the Poynter Institute, wrote in a commentary published today:
If you went to the Federal Communications Commission website first thing Wednesday morning, you would have read the following:
“An independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the Commission is the federal agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.”
Note the word: independent.
However, if you went to the FCC website a little bit after noon Eastern time on Wednesday, you would have seen this:
“A U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the Commission is the federal agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.”
Notice which word is missing: independent. …
So what happened? Why did the FCC say it was “independent” one moment and then have that word removed the next? Because FCC chair Brendan Carr, in fiery testimony during a Senate committee hearing, said the FCC was not independent.
In other words: The FCC answers to Trump, and must do his bidding—even if that means, for example, going after a talk-show host or news program that said something the president didn’t like.
Trump is not just using the federal government to go after media sources he dislikes; he’s also continuing to use the courts—most recently suing BBC for $10 billion (!) because of a bad edit in a pre-election documentary. Even though BBC admitted the mistake and apologized, and even though the edit clearly had no effect on the election results, he filed this insane suit.
In a CNN story, Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the suit “does not have any legal basis, either on defamation or jurisdictional grounds. This is nothing more than the president’s latest effort to intimidate media companies that he sees as adversarial to his administration.”
As we head approach 2026, all Americans who care about free speech—Republicans, Democrats, independents, all Americans—need to pay attention. Trump is following the power-consolidation playbook laid out by dictators he admittedly admires, like Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have made it clear that they won’t stop Trump, and as a result, the First Amendment is in serious trouble.
—Jimmy Boegle
From the Independent
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More News
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement is again performing raids in the Coachella Valley, a fact that has drawn condemnation from Rep. Raul Ruiz. From a statement: “These cruel, indiscriminate, massive deportations targeting non-criminal immigrants. These raids are creating fear across our communities, hurting local businesses, and tearing families apart. This approach is wrong and must stop. Everyone in our country has the right to due process under the Constitution. I am aware of recent ICE activity in the Coachella Valley, and I am closely monitoring the situation. I will remain vigilant and continue to stand up for the rights, safety, and dignity in our communities.”
• On the off chance you’ve been living under that figurative rock and somehow missed the news: Palm Desert City Councilmember Joe Pradetto’s attempt to rescind the city’s recognition of LGBTQ+ pride failed on Tuesday. Our friends at the Palm Desert Post had this interesting tidbit: “Out of more than 50 people who spoke in-person and on Zoom, just five spoke up in support of rescinding the resolutions and removing the banner. A ratio that was mirrored in the hundreds of emails. Pradetto went further and said that there is bubbling resentment among Palm Desert residents who oppose ‘specific symbols’ and that celebrating Pride at all in Palm Desert is a concern for residents, ‘because they felt that the images of the worst parts of Palm Springs Pride would come into Palm Desert and disrupt the community,’ without clarifying what he or residents meant by ‘worst parts’ of Palm Springs Pride.” To quote the great Bugs Bunny: What a maroon!
• The president continues to be petty and self-glorifying to a degree that should concern any rational American. He is proving again and again that he only cares about himself, and that he’s not in his right mind. First up: His handpicked Kennedy Center board voted to re-name the center after Trump. Yes, really. However, there’s a problem, as CNBC reports: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, will be renamed the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. The prestigious Washington cultural center’s board of trustees, who were appointed by President Donald Trump in February, ‘have just voted unanimously’ on the name change, Leavitt said in an X post. They did so ‘because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building,’ Leavitt said. … The move may face challenges, however: U.S. code states that no new ‘memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.’ To change that would require Congress, NBC News reported in July. House Republicans have already introduced at least one bill to rename the center in Trump’s honor.”
• Second: The NBC News headline is “White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.” Details: “The White House has installed plaques on the exterior of the building bashing President Donald Trump’s predecessors, including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and promoting disinformation about their administrations. The plaques were hung up below presidential portraits that have been on display on Trump’s recently added ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ in the White House colonnade. The one placed under the portrait of the ‘Autopen,’ which stands in for President Joe Biden’s portrait, refers to him as ‘Sleepy Joe Biden’ and calls him ‘the worst President in American History.’ The plaque contains a number of derisive statements about the former president, referring to Biden’s ‘severe mental decline,’ ‘the Biden Crime Family’ and his ‘Radical Left handlers.’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement that Trump wrote the text of ‘many’ of the plaques. ‘The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind,’ she said.” THIS IS PSYCHOTIC!
• On a completely different topic, The Washington Post published a fascinating multimedia piece on massive data centers—illustrating how they could change the country, and certainly not for the better. One tidbit: “Estimates vary, but all show a dizzying rise of between 60 and 150 percent in energy consumption by 2030. On average, they project U.S. data centers will use about 430 trillion watt-hours by 2030. That is enough electricity to power nearly 16 Chicagos.”
• And finally … today’s recall news involves … tamales! We’ll go directly to the Food and Drug Administration for this one: “Primavera Nueva Inc. is voluntarily recalling certain lots of its four-count tamales because the products have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women. (The) product was distributed by Primavera Nueva Inc. in California and Nevada to retail stores. … No illnesses have been reported to date.” Click the link for the specifics.
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