/// by ELIANA JONSHON SEP 23 2026 ----------------------- https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Incw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe90fced3-2eb6-4765-a44f-478288fceb43_736x515.jpeg Getty Images It’s a dark time for journalists—and thus for the state of democracy itself—as President Trump keeps our friends at CNN, Politico, and MS NOW off the White House grounds for publishing “FICTION” and “LIES.” We were tempted to say nothing, as we did when they came for Jim Acosta (because we’d rather not defend a sanctimonious windbag) and again when they came for Brian Stelter, Don Lemon, Chuck Todd, and Joy Reid (because literally no one cared). But we realized that if we remained silent once again, there might not be anyone left to speak out. As a result, we’re proud to share the following excerpts in defense of our fellow journalists from longtime Free Beacon ombudsman Biff Diddle. For whatever reason, they’re not returning our calls right now. But if they were, we’d tell them how proud we are to stand in solidarity with our mainstream media brethren. That, in humble service to their noble cause, we hereby pledge our lives (metaphorically, of course), our considerable fortunes (of wisdom), and our sacred White House Correspondents’ Association credentials—which we’ve never been able to obtain, but, you know, in theory. If we had credentials, rest assured the Free Beacon would happily join the other networks in their sympathy boycott. What’s the point in shouting questions at the president if your friends aren’t there to support you? We definitely would have joined that other boycott when Joe Biden was president and the White House press corps—intent on learning the truth about his health—refused to be bullied into submission by handlers who never let them ask questions without prior authorization. Am I remembering that correctly? President Trump’s aggression against the truth—against democracy itself—will not stand. Yeah, we went there. Fundamental rights are at stake. As far as we’re concerned, the government should not decide how CNN and MS NOW get to spend these precious few years before their viewing audiences die off. They deserve those ad dollars, and so do their future creditors. The decision to ban Politico, the news blog located many, many, floors beneath the Free Beacon, is even less defensible. To paraphrase what one of their esteemed bloggers told our intrepid reporters during the 2024 campaign: Condolences for working at Politico. Seriously, though, we’re sorry this happened to you. What is Trump even mad about? That they hired a journalist who “cried” on election night to report on his White House? If that’s disqualifying, every journalist in DC would be out of a job. Ladies and gentlemen, this is how democracy ends. Telling journalists they aren’t allowed to have feelings? What’s next? No more secret rape buttons on our desks? No more self-care sessions on Zoom calls with colleagues? Oh, wait. They’ve already banned those things because no one—the Free Beacon included—had the courage to take a stand against tyranny. That ends today. READ MORE: We Are All CNN: The Free Beacon Will Never Abandon Our Fellow Journalists In Their Time of Need []{} Additional reading: As former vice president Kamala Harris traveled to Michigan to campaign with Abdul El-Sayed on Tuesday, a group of Jewish Democrats in the state sent Harris a letter urging her “to call on [El-Sayed] to say what he has thus far been unwilling to say: that Jewish safety, including for Zionists, is nonnegotiable. That our right to define our own identity is nonnegotiable. That Jewish statehood and self-determination in our ancestral homeland is nonnegotiable.” Harris did such a great job standing up to the radical left in 2024, we’re sure she responded admirably. On the ground in Detroit, Harris served up equity-centered word salads. “The attack on DEI is an attack on maternal care,” she said before repeating the line. “An attack on DEI… to recognize diversity, equity, and inclusion, is an attack by definition on maternal care, including the need… to protect black women in connection with their pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care.” El-Sayed did not look especially interested. The founder and CEO of the Success Academy charter school network, former New York City Council education committee chair Eva Moskowitz, penned a response to the New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s piece detailing the failures of the “low-income and Black school” Hannah-Jones opted to send her daughter to. Moskowitz sent her son to Success, a “nonselective” public charter where there were “no other white children in his class from kindergarten through 12th grade, but he fit in,” she wrote. “Hannah-Jones’s daughter,” then, “did not need more white classmates to have her math work checked. She needed a teacher who checked it.” Cornell University released a 200-plus-page report on Tuesday that “calls for making difficult choices” amid the trust crisis plaguing higher education institutions. Such choices include “embracing a range of ideologies” and returning to “the basics” in the classroom, which means “more project-based learning and teaching time-management strategies,” the New York Times reported. Other elite institutions, like Yale, have released similar reports but struggled to back them up with actions. We’ll see if Cornell bucks that trend. She’s running? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discussed her potential 2028 presidential campaign in an interview with the New York Times, saying, “There’s an argument that some make that this is a very unique political window and, oftentimes in politics, you do only get one shot. And you don’t — and just in life in general — life doesn’t wait for you to be ready for things. Sometimes life just makes things ready for you.” Check out our full Wednesday lineup below. Abdul El-Sayed Called on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood To ‘Purge the Media and Police’ Shortly Before Islamic Government Arrested Reporters for ‘Insulting Islam’ Best Way for Trump to Win the Midterms Is to Win the War Before the Election We Are All CNN: The Free Beacon Will Never Abandon Our Fellow Journalists In Their Time of Need Radical Academic Who Celebrated Oct 7 as Breach of ‘Prison Walls’ Slated To Appear at UNC’s Global Education Center Sour Patch: Abdul El-Sayed Is Weird About His Beard Trump Tells UN: ‘Big Decision’ Coming on Iran, Threatens To ‘Annihilate the Islamic Republic’ and Drive Regime ‘Into Hell With No Chance of Survival’ Thanks for reading the Washington Free Beacon! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.