In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne talks to Julian Walker about his book Wires Crossed: Memoir of a Citizen and Reporter in the Irving Press published by Friesen Press in 2021.

Wires Crossed is first and foremost a love letter to the free press. In Julian Walker’s personal memoir as a citizen and reporter, he calls for a healthier New Brunswick free press—one that is more diverse, competitive, independent, and feisty. Through its traditional emulation of KC Irving and his family’s empire, New Brunswick has grown used to one-owner control of two key sectors, the media and large industry. The danger to the New Brunswick free press stems mainly from the wires-crossed relationship between the Irving Press and Irving industry. Walker argues that a strong and independent free press, whether digital or on newsprint, is vital for assuring good government in North America and the survival of liberal democracy itself.

Julian holds degrees in politics from Trent University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a journalism degree from Carleton University. Along with his extensive experience as a journalist and newspaper editor, Julian has also worked in government, serving as a deputy minister for 10 years in the departments of the Environment, Municipalities, Culture and Housing, and Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs. He remains dedicated to restoring a freer press in New Brunswick and Canada.

This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Wires Crossed: How the Irving empire jeopardized free press in New Brunswick

Don't worry: no actual doggos were sent back to any pound. It's a metaphor. A metaphor for major corporate news media. They aren't fulfilling their watchdog roles any longer. Send them to the pound!

From the pages of ThisIsCommonSense.org, Paul Jacob and Timothy Virkkala discuss five stories that even have some hope in them:

August 11 — Outlawed But Unmoved — Paul Jacob retells the true tale of an unlicensed mover who shook things up. 

August 10 — Students Strike Back — Paul Jacob cheers on the fight against socialist college administrators.

August 9 — Donors Don’t Donate Their Privacy — Paul Jacob looks at a legislative effort in one state, and its merits for all other states.

August 8 —Time to Slap Grabby Hands — Paul Jacob applauds congressional action on civil asset forfeiture.

August 7 — Big-Gov-Google-Plex — Paul Jacob on suit-slapping the social media censors.

The Watchdog that needs to go to the pound

Julian Assange was arrested outside England's Ecuadorian embassy after Ecuador's president revoked his political asylum. The U.S. unsealed an extradition request outlining Espionage Act charges, and U.K. authorities moved him to London's Belmarsh Prison in April 2019, a maximum security facility where inmates are held in small single cells. Amnesty International has drawn parallels between Belmarsh and Guantanamo Bay. Reports and statements from doctors emerged quickly after his imprisonment testifying to his deteriorating mental and physical health. 

Stella Assange—an attorney specializing in international law, a human rights activist, and the wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, with whom she has two children—joined Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe on episode three of Just Asking Questions to talk about the toll that imprisonment has taken on Assange and his family. They also discuss the threat to freedom of speech that the United States' Espionage Act case against Assange poses, why she believes that the Swedish sex charges against him were bogus, and why many in the U.S. media seem hostile to Assange and WikiLeaks. 

Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher.

Stella Assange: Why Isn't Julian Assange a Free Man?

According to Mischa Geracoulis, of Project Censored, media is a public good and journalism is a public service. 

“Being able to access information, being able to join in, participate in the free flow of information, to have an opinion, to formulate a stance –that is actually considered a human right, under Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.” 

It only follows that censorship is a violation of human rights. 

Project Censored defines censorship more broadly than a government’s control over the media. It is the suppression of information, whether purposefully or not, by any method – (including) bias, omission, underreporting, or even self-censorship by the reporter or publisher.  

Steve and Mischa discuss the urgency of getting the public to understand the genocide in Gaza, and crucial for Americans to see their government’s role in it. 

They look at the challenges faced by independent press, as well as special problems of news deserts. They also talk about the need for media literacy while much of the public relies on social media, where algorithms play a suppressive role.  

Mischa Geracoulis is a media literacy expert, writer, and educator, serving as Project Censored’s curriculum development coordinator. Mischa is on the editorial boards of the Censored Press and the Markaz Review. 

@MGeracoulis, @ProjectCensored on Twitter

Propaganda, Algorithms & Disinformation with Mischa Geracoulis

Leslie Marshall Show -2/24/25- Trump and Musk's Abuse of Power; Trump vs the Free Press

Donald Trump is using his second term to assault free speech and get revenge against his political enemies and others who fail to bow to his magnanimousness. 

Trump is using his second term to destroy free speech and a free press - 062625

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.

Brad is first joined by Tim Karr, Senior of Director of Strategy and Communications at 'Free Press,' a nonpartisan organization fighting for your rights to connect and communicate.
The pair examines the increasingly disturbing trend of the mainstream media's capitulation to Trump and his administration.  This includes a discussion on Free Press's newly created 'Media Capitulation Index,' and a report that Tim authored on the way forward.  It's titled, "A More Perfect Media: Saving America’s Fourth Estate from Billionaires, Broligarchy and Trump."

Then, Brad is joined by Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of 'The New Jewish Narrative."  The organization's mission statement identifies their members as "American Jews, deeply rooted in the story of our people and the history of our struggle for peace and justice. In our narrative, peace and justice are the birthright of Israelis, of Palestinians, and of all people."

The two discuss the increasingly dire situation in Gaza, where the United Nation's Humanitarian Affairs Office says that food consumption has "declined to its lowest level since the onset of the war." They report that "nearly 90% of households have resorted to extremely severe coping mechanisms to feed themselves, including taking significant risks to obtain food and scavenging from garbage."  
Gaza health authorities also report that over 200 people have died of starvation since the war began 22 months ago, and that nearly half of them were children.


Brad writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.'
He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His handle on BlueSky is @bradbannon.bsky.social.   

(Image Credit: Free Press)

Leslie Marshall Show - 8/11/25 - Media Capitulation to Trump; Palestinian Children Dying of Starvation in Gaza

One of the most troubling things about this era in American history is the number of institutions that have caved to Trump's bullying and given him what he wants, especially when it comes to media organizations. The folks over at the non-profit Free Press have done a lot of research and put together the new Media Capitulation Index, which aims to track and dissect this distressing phenomenon. This week, Free Press's Nora Benavidez and Timothy Karr join the podcast to talk about how they made the Index and what it can teach us.

The Media Capitulation Index

To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Beatrice and Artie discuss a disturbing set of arguments that evidence of famine in Gaza—and genocide deaths themselves—can be invalidated by showing that the victims had “pre-existing conditions” or “underlying health conditions,” most brazenly demonstrated in a recent Free Press piece called “They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems.”

Donate links for projects mentioned in the episode:

Gaza Funds - https://gazafunds.com/

Sameer Project - https://linktr.ee/thesameerproject

Medical Campaign x Sameer Project - https://chuffed.org/project/136892-medical-campaign-x-sameer-project

South Gaza: Tents, Food & Water (Sameer Project) - https://chuffed.org/project/113222-tent-campaign-the-sameer-project

The Refaat Alareer Camp (Sameer Project) - https://chuffed.org/project/113327-refaat-alareer-camp-the-sameer-project

North Gaza: Food, Water & Other Distributions (Sameer Project) - https://chuffed.org/project/help-us-deliver-vital-aid-to-gaza-families-in-need

Gaza Municipality's Artificial Limbs and Polio Center - https://mogaza.org/campaign/2

Workshops for Gaza - https://www.workshops4gaza.com/workshops

Workshops for Gaza Bookstore - https://open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/collections/workshops-4-gaza-bookstore

Crips for eSIMs for Gaza - http://cripsforesimsforgaza.org/

Show Links:

Health Communism is now out in paperback! Find it here or order at this link to add a donation to Sameer Project: https://open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/w4g-adler-bolton-beatrice-artie-vierkant-health-communism

Find Tracy's book, Abolish Rent, here: www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent

Outro by Time Wharp: https://timewharp.bandcamp.com/track/tezeta

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Death Panel

Death Panel Episode 583 Can the Subaltern Starve? (08/28/25)

Become a patron

Can the Subaltern Starve? (08/28/25)

The Reason Interview goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and policymakers who are making the world a more libertarian—or at least more interesting—place by challenging worn-out orthodoxies and ideas.

Today's guest is Jake Tapper, the host of The Lead on CNN and author of the new book, Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War.

He tells Nick Gillespie why it matters that Donald Trump is following Barack Obama's lead in trying terrorists in criminal courts rather than military tribunals, why he believes the Trump administration is unleashing an all-out offensive against journalists critical of the president, and what the legacy media got way wrong with Joe Biden and COVID.

They also discuss the future of journalism in an age of media consolidation, where Free Press upstart Bari Weiss is heading up CBS News—and possibly CNN, too.

Previous appearance:
Jake Tapper on The Hellfire Club, Donald Trump's Big Lies, and D.C.'s 'Bullshit Waterfall', May 11, 2018

0:00–Introduction

1:34–Race Against Terror

5:25–The Bush administration and the war on terror

8:39–The legality and effectiveness of torture

17:06–President Trump's approach to foreign policy

22:19–Media censorship and the FCC

29:43–CBS News, CNN, and the challenges facing legacy media

40:14–The rise of independent media

52:07–Joe Biden's decline and its impact on the Democratic Party

58:37–What is being underreported in the second Trump administration?

1:06:05–Generational shifts in political views

Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast


Jake Tapper on Censorship, Media Failings, and Presidential Power

The Techdirt Podcast, hosted by Michael Masnick.

Founded in 1968, Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Our podcast offerings include:

The Reason Roundtable
Every Monday, the libertarian editors of the magazine of “Free Minds and Free Markets”—Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Peter Suderman—discuss and debate the week’s biggest stories and what fresh hell awaits us all.

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie
Want to know what comes next in politics, culture, and libertarian ideas? Reason’s Nick Gillespie hosts relentlessly interesting interviews with the activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, newsmakers, and politicians who are defining the 21st century.

The Soho Forum Debates
Reason presents a libertarian-themed debate series recorded monthly before a live audience in New York City. Moderated by former Barron's Economics Editor Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum features Nobel prize winners, radical thinkers, and other public intellectuals facing off over the future of bitcoin, veganism, sex work, illegal drugs, electric vehicles, abortion, robotics, government debt, and other controversial topics.

Immerse yourself in Canada’s history! Witness to Yesterday episodes take listeners on a journey to document a time in Canada’s past and explore the people behind it, its significance, and its relevance to today. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. To learn more about the Society and Canada’s history, subscribe to our newsletter at https://bit.ly/news_WTY.

The best progressive talk right here, on demand. Always Progressive, Always On!

Politics, culture, and public policy from the left. Stay alive another week.

w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson. 

https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Macroeconomics has never been so ... delish!  Macro and Cheese explores the progressive movement through the lens of Modern Monetary Theory, with hot and irreverent political takes, spotlights in activism, and the razor sharp musings of Real Progressives Founder and host Steve Grumbine.  The cheese will flow as experts come in for a full, four course deep dive into the hot queso. 

Comfort Food for Thought!

This Week in Common Sense is Paul Jacob's weekend wrap-up of the big stories of the week, as they appear on “This Is Common Sense with Paul Jacob,” his commentary page at thisiscommonsense.org.

Paul Jacob is president of the Liberty Initiative Fund, a national organization helping citizens place issues on the ballot to protect individual liberty and hold government accountable.

“If there’s anyone who’s been involved in more citizen initiative campaigns in the history of this country [than Paul Jacob],” said Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mathews, “I’m not aware of them.”

For more than a decade, Paul was the term limits movement’s leading voice, running U.S. Term Limits, the nation’s largest such group. For his work to bring term limits to Congress, columnist Robert Novak good-naturedly called Jacob “the most hated man in Washington.”

Campaigning for term limits, as well as for spending caps, property rights measures and candidate ballot access, Paul has been involved in over 175 statewide petition drives.

Currently, Paul Jacob hosts Common Sense, an online and print opinion program that reaches tens of thousands of online readers and e-mail subscribers. His new podcast is an informal recap of the week's major stories as covered on thisiscommonsense.com — hence the title, This Week in Common Sense.

“The best way to assure freedom of expression, no matter where it may be threatened,” Pulitzer-prize winning columnist, Paul Greenberg, wrote recently, “would be to have an army of utterly determined Paul Jacob fighting for it.”

Paul won the “Courage Under Fire” award at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference. He has also been named “a rising star in politics” by Campaigns & Elections magazine, received the Society for Individual Liberty’s “Phoenix Award” for “contributions to the advancement of liberty in America,” and was dubbed one of “The Best and the Rightest” by National Journal. 

His writing has been featured in USA Today, The Washington Times, The New York Daily News, Roll Call, Human Events, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Examiner and other publications. He has appeared on numerous television programs and is a consistent guest on talk radio.

During the late 1970s and 1980s, Jacob held a number of positions in the Libertarian Party, including serving as chairman of the Arkansas Libertarian Party, national director of the national Libertarian Party and also national ballot access coordinator. Paul also served on the Libertarian National Committee — a position he was elected to from his federal prison cell, while serving a six month sentence for refusing to register for the military draft.

Paul currently serves on the boards of Citizens in Charge, a non-partisan group working to protect and expand voter initiative rights, and the Citizens in Charge Foundation, a charitable foundation conducting research on the initiative process, educating the public and litigating to defend petition rights — both groups he founded. He also serves on the board of the Great Communicators Foundation, a charitable foundation providing communication training to pro-liberty activists, and on the board of the Taxpayers United of America.

Paul lives with his wife Rhonda in Woodbridge, Virginia. They have three children and two grandchildren.

“The Strident Conservative” is a two minute daily commentary focusing on the news and issues relevant to Conservatives and the Constitution. With a focus on holding our political and spiritual leaders accountable for the decline of American greatness, we are an equal-opportunity critic, holding members of every political stripe accountable.

New tracks tagged #Free Press