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Tori Smith Ekstrand

@toriekstrand.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.5K following 443 posts

Professor, Media Law, UNC-Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Media. Former AP exec. Speaking for myself & not UNC. "Take up space. Pitch it faster. Run harder. Put another plate on the bar. And NEVER tone it down." - Ilona Maher. #academicfreedom

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Reposted by Tori Smith Ekstrand
North Carolina Conference of the AAUP @ncaaup.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
UNC System is helping enrich a trillionaire race warmonger with the blood of millions on his hands from the USAID cutoff. And when the stocks go belly up, our students, faculty, staff, and communities will all get screwed, and he will walk away laughing with even more blood on his hands
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UNC-CH AAUP @unc-ch-aaup.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
The AAUP-UNC Chapel Hill chapter calls on the Board of Trustees to reverse their vote and respect shared governance and academic freedom, key principles that will allow UNC to continue as one of the best public universities in the world. Read the full AAUP statement: unc-ch-aaup.org/assets/state...
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Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 @rweingarten.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
This is an important op-ed from @ncaaup.bsky.social President Belle Boggs. Academic freedom—allowing open discussion in classrooms and creative scholarly research free from censorship—is what creates healthy and thriving learning environments for students. ncnewsline.com/2026/01/26/w...
ncnewsline.com
Why Parents and Students Should Care About Academic Freedom • NC Newsline
More than anything that draws students to our campuses — more than winning sports teams and fancy dining halls, state-of-the-art labs and well-stocked libraries — academic freedom is what makes our un...
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Jen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
I see people living their values and it's so inspiring 🥰 bsky.app/profile/jenm...
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Damir Cosic @damircosic.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
theguardian.com
'It's about freedom of the press': photographer tackled by ICE throws camera to save it – video
Last week, the independent photographer John Abernathy was tackled to the ground by ICE agents during a protest in Minneapolis
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Derek Willis @dwillis.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
They'll be lucky to get good enough. Mostly they'll get more work, but the RFC should be interesting.
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
AAUP's @belleboggs.bsky.social brings the 🔥. Please share...
ncnewsline.com
Why Parents and Students Should Care About Academic Freedom • NC Newsline
More than anything that draws students to our campuses — more than winning sports teams and fancy dining halls, state-of-the-art labs and well-stocked libraries — academic freedom is what makes our un...
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
The speed at which their propaganda machine activates and their dedication to selectively amplifying evidence to push their frames is remarkable.
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just Dave @justdave.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
There's a difference between traditional public records requests and a searchable database and a system that considers this their property.
wunc.org
It's official, North Carolina professors will have to publicly post syllabi
UNC System President Peter Hans' decision puts North Carolina in league with other Southern states like Florida and Texas, which legislatively mandate syllabi to be public records.
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Keung Hui @keunghui.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Charlotte-Mecklebburg Schools, according to reports, saw 15% of its students absent today amid Border Patrol operations in Charlotte. If that percentage of 15% happens Tuesday in Wake County due to the Border Patrol coming to Raleigh, 24.000 students could be absent from school. #nced #ncpol #wcpss
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Stars and Stripes @starsandstripes.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Other states sending troops to the capital include Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina. Read the full story:
stripes.com
White House says National Guard could carry weapons in DC as Mississippi, Tennessee pledge to send troops
Mississippi pledged to send about 200 Guard troops. About 160 Tennessee Guard troops will depart this week. They could carry weapons in the city.
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Stars and Stripes @starsandstripes.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
BREAKING: Three more states are sending National Guard troops to the nation's capital, with the White House stating they could be armed. Mississippi pledged to send about 200 Guard troops. About 160 Tennessee Guard troops will depart this week. Louisiana has promised to send 135 troops. #Flashes
A JLTV rolls along the streets of Washington, D.C., carrying National Guard troops. The U.S. Capitol building can be seen in the background. (Missy Sterling/U.S. Air National Guard)

White text: White House says National Guard could carry weapons in DC as 3 more states pledge to send troops; Stars and Stripes logo
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Sasha Senderovich 🌻 @returnstosender.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.
I've now been allowed and asked to share more details about what's going down at the University of Oregon, which involves imminent announcement of firings, among others, of tenure-track and tenured faculty. Given the units impacted (see below), please  share this with your professional networks in related disciplines and start getting ready to put pressure (or begin putting pressure already) on the University of Oregon upper admin to abandon this alleged plan before they finalize it.

It appears that, with no prior consultations, the departments of Religion and Classics (two separate units), and the programs in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, German & Scandinavian, Judaic Studies, Arabic Studies, and Holocaust Studies (the latter five all parts of a previously-consolidated mega unit called the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages) are facing imminent announcement of elimination (expected the week of Sept 7), with layoffs of pre-tenure, tenured, and career faculty in these units. The reason given is "financial exigency" -- upper administrations of several universities across the country (and in blue states like Oregon also) appear to be giddy to use the context of Trump attacks on higher ed to dismantle the humanities.

Faculty at OU won a faculty union not long ago; this may be, in part, a retaliation for that, I've been told. The union is working with AAUP, etc.; my understanding is that the maximum spotlight is needed at this point.
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Insurance is one of those things you just can't bullshit or fake, as authoritarians try to do with many other things via control of information. Losses are losses, and when they're bigger than expected, the firms go broke
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 01/08/2025
Job growth is decelerating as huge amounts of policy uncertainty from POTUS reduces businesses’ willingness to invest: +128K/mo over most-recent 12 months +81K/mo over most-recent 6 months +35K/mo over most-recent 3 months +73K this past month
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Josh Johnson @joshjohnsoncomedy.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
When you strip away humanity
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 15/07/2025
This is a good read
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Techmeme @techmeme.com · 14/07/2025
The US DOD announces OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI have won DOD contracts, each with a $200M ceiling, aimed at enabling agentic AI workflows and more (Deborah Sophia/Reuters) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Starting July 25, Bluesky will require users in the UK to scan their face, upload an ID or verify their identity with a bankcard. I realize that platforms feel they have no choice but to comply with the government surveillance schemes, but shocking nonetheless.
theverge.com
Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK
Bluesky users in the UK can verify their age using their face, ID, or payment card.
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
We are still so heartbroken. May their memories inspire us to change.
nytimes.com
Minnesota Lawmaker and Her Husband Remembered for Their Shared Legacy
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Amanda Litman @amandalitman.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Zohran Mamdani’s win has inspired over 3400 young people to raise their hands to run for office just since Tuesday. It’s now @runforsomething.net’s biggest candidate recruitment moment since the election. A new generation of leaders is here.
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Aaron Black @aaronblack.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
People in wheelchairs are getting arrested right now in the Russell Senate Office Building in DC. They showed up to tell Congress not to cut their Medicaid, because they cant afford health care without it. If you look closely you can see the zip ties on their hands. #WeWontGetOverLosingMedicaid
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 24/06/2025
A lot of people will say "it's obviously fake" but that's missing the bigger problem. We're now having to expend more and more mental effort to ensure the media we consume is real. The ultimate effect is that everyone will distrust everything they don't want to believe. It only helps authoritarians.
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
The refusal to publicly offer evidence to justify the *use of military force* is a key step toward autocratization because it rejects the notion that this government owes the people it rules an explanation of its actions.
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 15/06/2025
Based on crowd-sourced records of No Kings Day event turnout, and extrapolating for the cities where we don't have data yet, it looks like roughly 4-6 million people protested Trump across the U.S. yesterday. That's nearly 2% of the U.S. pop! Mobilized anti-Trump resistance is exceeding 2017 levels
gelliottmorris.com
"No Kings Day" protests turn out millions
Our unofficial estimate is that around 4 million people attended a protest event yesterday. Anti-Trump resistance is outpacing 2017.
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Alex Graudins @toonyballoony.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I did my best to compile as many protest safety notes as possible into a one page foldout zine! Coincidentally…it seems the file has breached containment…like it’s available for anyone to print or hand out 👀⚖️ toonyart.com/s/PSZine.pdf
The cover spread from a one page zine printout. The left (back cover) features images of a scale and gavel, with notes on First Amendment and filming rights, and the advice to “shut the fuck up.”

On the right is the cover, a megaphone with the title text “PROTEST SAFELY.” Behind it are faceless protestors. The subtitle notes, “A brief collection of tips from around the internet.”A spread from one page zine printout.
On the left is an illustration of a protestor with the title “What to Wear,” including a helmet, goggles, ear plugs, gloves, a mask, a backpack, and layers/long sleeves/pants. Each have additional notes explaining their use.

On the right is “What to Bring,” featuring illustrations of a backpack, money, water bottles, a mask, a granola bar and bag of trail mix, a first aid kit, folded shirt and pants, and an ID, with “DIY Defense” listed underneath it showing one protestor using a luggage case, one holding a trash can lid, and one using an open umbrella as a shield.A spread from one page zine printout.
On the left is “Protect Your Identity,” advising to cover up identifying features, avoiding photography of protesters, deactivating biometric phone-unlocking tools, and writing emergency contact and counsel numbers on your arm.

On the right is “Be Like Water,” the motto of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and the text “BEWARE THE BAIT” with images of a palette of bricks and a masked man holding a crowbar toward a protestor with a sign, “Psst, free crowbar?” encouraging the reader not to engage with traps and undercover agents.A spread from one page zine printout featuring the hazards of protest opposition, including tear gas, rubber bullets, and LRAD sound cannons and flash bangs. Caution tape images accompany the text explaining the dangers of each, how to flush out eyes that have been maced/etc, and how to extinguish a gas canister with a traffic cone.
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Andrew Couts @couts.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
We've just updated the @wired.com guide to protecting your privacy while attending protests with the latest best practices. @agreenberg.bsky.social and @lhn.bsky.social report: www.wired.com/story/how-to...
wired.com
How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance
Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Asking questions is what I have been doing my entire career.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Statement from Sen. Alex Padilla's office:
“Senator Padilla is currently in Los Angeles exercising his duty to perform Congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and across California. He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guillot and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference. He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information.”
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Never hurts to repost.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 12/06/2025
Sitting US Senator Alex Padilla forcibly wrestled to the ground and arrested by the FBI for attempting to ask a question of DHS secretary Kristin Noem.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
We’ve leapt over a lot of red lines in the last week. But one I find most worrying is Trump/MAGA/ICE have ceased even pretending to claim some criminal pretext for cracking down on protected speech. It’s just straight up “if you criticize us, you’re getting throttled/arrested/disappeared.”
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Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Amazing how hard it is to write: “Police shoot at journalists.”
L.A. Protests Prompt
Calls for Police Restraint After Journalist Injuries
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
"If you saw all this in any other country — soldiers sent to crush dissent, union leaders arrested, opposition politicians threatened — it would be clear that autocracy had arrived."
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
"Tanner, a chemist at the Univ. of Mississippi working to develop a novel approach for treating glioblastoma, was notified in April that the grant was terminated. “I would like to cure brain cancer,” Dr. Tanner said. “I think that's not particularly controversial.” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
The Gutting of America’s Medical Research: Here Is Every Canceled or Delayed N.I.H. Grant
Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
This city girl may be finally countrified... walked a contractor around my very wet, very wooded property this AM. Spiders, spider webs, chance of a snake anywhere today... and I am like...
media.tenor.com
a black cat is holding a nail file in its paws and asking , `` so ? ''
ALT: a black cat is holding a nail file in its paws and asking , `` so ? ''
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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
A radical transformation of our way of life is underway. Don’t let anyone gaslight you into thinking this administration is normal.
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Carrie Brown @brizzyc.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
"the departures mean large parts of the federal government are essentially fading to black, with services, functions, and research projects going offline, one after another after another." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
When it comes to Trump's brain drain, “the damage is already done”
How the DOGE-triggered attack on government research left America in the dark.
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Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
I try to cope with the Horrors but every day there's at least one story that just fills me with an overwhelming sense of dread
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 28/05/2025
REPORTER: When could the administration resume interviews for foreign students visa? TRUMP: On what? REPORTER: Foreign student visas TRUMP: For the French? REPORTER: All the foreign students TRUMP: What are you referring-- foreign visas for what?
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
I'm old. I am thinking of all the wonderful secretaries and assistants I have worked with over 30 years ... who helped me get expenses in, dot i's; cross t's. Some of them have passed; some retired. Regardless, I am blessing them all right now as I attempt to battle CONCUR.
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Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
"The brazenness of the self-enrichment resembles nothing seen in any earlier White House. This is American corruption on the scale of a post-Soviet republic or a postcolonial African dictatorship." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
theatlantic.com
The Trump Presidency’s World-Historical Heist
He is taking self-enrichment to a scale never seen before in America.
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
We now get to join Ohio and Texas....
chronicle.com
At Chapel Hill, Only Health-Sciences Professors Have Been Getting Tenure
The UNC Chapel Hill board hasn’t tenured a single professor in fields outside the health sciences since January. The inaction has prompted confusion and alarm among faculty.
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
If you want a sneak peak into our future imagine the politicization of everything. Whether the government performs a function entirely dependent on whether the government likes you. You want your social security check? Small business loan? Let's have a look at your facebook posts first
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Tori Smith Ekstrand @toriekstrand.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
It's likely the Ohio Texas playbook. I'm betting we'll see it spelled out more plainly in the new budget at the 11th hour.
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
BREAKING: The Supreme Court just effectively overruled 90 years of precedent on the shadow docket, greenlighting Trump's firing of multi-member agency leaders while their cases are pending—despite Congress' effort to protect them against removal. A huge decision. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 24A966
DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, ET AL. v. GWYNNE A. WILCOX, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[May 22, 2025]
The Government has applied for a stay of orders from the
District Court for the District of Columbia enjoining the
President’s removal of a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and a member of the Merit Systems
Protection Board (MSPB), respectively. The President is
prohibited by statute from removing these officers except
for cause, and no qualifying cause was given. See 29
U. S. C. §153(a); 5 U. S. C. §1202(d).
The application for stay presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE
and by him referred to the Court is granted. Because the
Constitution vests the executive power in the President, see
Art. II, §1, cl. 1, he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents, see Seila Law
LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 591 U. S.
197, 215−218 (2020). The stay reflects our judgment that
the Government is likely to show that both the NLRB and
MSPB exercise considerable executive power. But we do
not ultimately decide in this posture whether the NLRB or
MSPB falls within such a recognized exception; that question is better left for resolution after full briefing and argument. The stay also reflects our judgment that the Government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a
removed officer to continue exercising the executive power
than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable
to perform her statutory duty. See Trump v. International
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