The first three days of the Trump presidency revealed expanding threats to free expression—as well as increasing efforts to protect it by people like you. As we brace for more attacks on the press, deliberate disinformation, and attempts to silence dissent, our best hope of fighting back includes staying informed.

DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression

PEN America’s take on today’s most pressing threats to free expression

Special Edition: U.S. Inauguration Weekend
Monday, January 23, 2017

The Women’s Marches may have been the largest protest in US history
Crowd estimates from Women’s Marches on Saturday are still trickling in, but political scientists say they think we may have just witnessed the largest day of demonstrations in American history.
VOX

With False Claims, Trump Attacks Media on Turnout and Intelligence Rift
President Trump used his first full day in office on Saturday to unleash a remarkably bitter attack on the news media, falsely accusing journalists of both inventing a rift between him and intelligence agencies and deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd.
NEW YORK TIMES

Trump’s press secretary lashes out at press, calling crowd coverage ‘shameful and wrong’
Sean Spicer used his first media briefing to angrily lambaste the press for its coverage of the new administration, claiming reporters had deliberately sought to minimize the “enormous” crowd at Trump’s swearing-in on Friday.
WASHINGTON POST

Conway: Trump White House offered ‘alternative facts’ on crowd size
Sean Spicer’s false claims about the size of the crowd at President Donald Trump’s inauguration were “alternative facts,” a top Trump aide said Sunday.
CNN

Canadians traveling to Women’s March denied US entry after sharing plans
Would-be protesters heading to the Women’s March on Washington have said they were denied entry to the United States after telling border agents at a land crossing in Quebec their plans to attend the march.
THE GUARDIAN

The traditional way of reporting on a president is dead. And Trump’s press secretary killed it.
The presidency is not a reality show, but President Trump on his first full day in office made clear that he’s still obsessed with being what he once proudly called “a ratings machine.”
WASHINGTON POST

Why BuzzFeed News Published the Dossier
Since BuzzFeed News published a 35-page dossier of unverified allegations about ties between President Trump and Russia, I’ve heard a chorus of criticism from journalists who say we abdicated our role as gatekeeper, and a chorus of thanks from readers who want to be trusted to judge dubious documents.
NEW YORK TIMES

Sean Spicer’s War With the Media Goes Back to His College Days
His brushes with the news media — and ensuing raw feelings — go further back than that, to his school days at Connecticut College, where he was a student government senator and his relationship with The College Voice was, shall we say, not terribly cordial. He may have even coined the meme “Sad!”
THE DAILY MAIL

Trump, Russia, and the News Story That Wasn’t
Conversations over what to publish allegations against Trump were prolonged and lively, involving Washington and New York, and often including the executive editor. If the allegations were true, it was a huge story. If false, they could damage The Times’s reputation.
NEW YORK TIMES

Trump’s Lies vs. Your Brain
Donald Trump is in a different category. The sheer frequency, spontaneity and seeming irrelevance of his lies have no precedent. Nixon, Reagan and Clinton were protecting their reputations; Trump seems to lie for the pure joy of it.
POLITICO

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