Meidas Needs Your Help if Trump Comes for Us Again Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network May 4 By Ben Meiselas Dear Meidas Mighty, As I share this Sunday coffee with you, I reflect on what we have accomplished together and the challenges that lie ahead. Trump has attacked us before and sued our hosts for hundreds of millions of dollars—and he lost. He dismissed his case. He’s tried to intimidate us in his criminal case filings. He failed. None of that worked. We expect, in the coming days or weeks, he will come after us again. Trump’s authoritarian conduct is accelerating as he gets more desperate. We are told by credible sources that he will start attacking independent media soon—and since we are the leader in independent media, we will be his first target. I guess that would make us a repeat customer. This past week, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle PBS and NPR. The prior week, the DOJ issued a memo to go after media companies that use sources inside the regime. You may recall that two weeks ago, I interviewed the DOJ whistleblower who gave us an inside look into the harm that is being caused. Trump effectively dismantled the White House Correspondents' Association and turned the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner into something out of North Korea. Trump is gearing up to throw a military parade for himself next month on his birthday that will cost taxpayers around $100 million and will include 7,000 troops, 50 helicopters, fighter jets, and paratroopers. This is right out of North Korea. Not to mention, Trump is posting photos of himself dressed as the Pope and saying he wants to become the new pope at the upcoming conclave. Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day. So it’s fitting that I write this today. In many authoritarian regimes, the press are disappeared the way Trump is disappearing migrants in the United States. The disappearing of migrants is a test run for Trump to disappear journalists and other groups. This is one of the reasons Trump refuses to comply with the Supreme Court’s 9-0 order to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia—because it would undermine his plan to target other groups next. Trump has been very clear what he thinks about reporters like us, who he calls “the enemy of the people.” Trump has been surprised by the ferocity of the resistance—from the courts, to what’s happening in the streets with massive protests, to the international resistance, as MAGA-aligned candidates are getting crushed in elections like in Canada and Australia. We can’t let up now. We must grow the resistance and opposition even more. It’s been the honor of my life to lead the main media network for the resistance. We’ve covered the things that corporate news has refused to touch. In doing so, the MeidasTouch Network has become the top independent media network across all digital platforms. We know that our profile—being number 1 and beating Fox and Joe Rogan—means we are Trump’s number 1 target. (Remember to add the MeidasTouch Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to keep this momentum going.) That’s fine. We expect that to be the case, and we’re prepared for it. If you are able to help the MeidasTouch Network by becoming a subscriber now or gifting a subscription to someone you know, it would make a huge difference to us. Every single subscriber counts. We’ve grown thanks to the subscribers of this Substack. So if you can help the MeidasTouch Network, please consider subscribing to this Substack now—and forwarding this to people you know and asking them to subscribe today. Thank you, Meidas Mighty, for sharing this coffee with me this morning. Thanks for your help. Thanks for all you do. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

 

Happy World Press Freedom Day A Reason To Smile Dan Rather and Team Steady May 4 Dan Rather with R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe in 2017. Happy Sunday to you all! I ask for your indulgence for a moment as we have a song to share that I hope will leave you smiling. The legendary rock band that performs this week's song upholds an ideal that I very much support: a free and independent press. And, not coincidentally, they’re re-releasing — on World Press Freedom Day — one of their hits, to help journalists. Trust me — there are not many songs, much less hits, that check all those boxes. World Press Freedom Day was established by the United Nations in 1993 to “raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and to remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The need to raise awareness about the plight of journalists and the state of journalism around the world could not come at a more critical time. Sadly, one needs to look no farther than our own backyard, where freedom of the press is under constant and organized attack by the Trump administration. Case in point: In March, Trump signed an executive order that effectively shuttered the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It is an umbrella organization for federally funded news outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, which collectively reach 420 million people, in 100 countries, in 63 languages. USAGM’s mission is to provide pro-democracy journalism to parts of the globe where a free press is threatened or nonexistent. The agency has sued the administration to have the congressionally allocated funding released. Last week, a federal judge ruled in their favor, and then Trump countersued. Right now the money and the fates of those broadcasters and their journalists are in limbo. In a letter to USAGM’s Trump-appointed overseer, the heads of the various broadcasters begged for help. “Our journalists are terrified that the withdrawal of support from their employers will lead to harassment, prison, and worse,” the letter stated. The plea so far has fallen on deaf ears, but some help is coming from another quarter. In 1981, a fledgling alternative rock band out of Athens, Georgia, debuted its first single, “Radio Free Europe.” The song became one of many hits for R.E.M. To celebrate World Press Freedom Day and raise money and awareness for the embattled Radio Free Europe, R.E.M. decided to make a remix of the hit, along with a new video that highlights the important work of these brave journalists. R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe explained why to CBS News: “We love journalism. We love freedom of speech, and we love the world.” I have known Stipe and bandmate Mike Mills for many years and can vouch for them and their group as great gentlemen and performers … even though they once wrote a song about your narrator, which I regretfully agreed to perform with them on late-night television. Live and learn. If you are able to, please support my team, who make pieces like this possible. No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading, watching, and listening. Stay Steady, Dan