Last Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel shared that his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico wouldn’t be aired on TV amidst threats from the Federal Communications Commission under the Trump administration.

Any journalist will likely tell you that good independent journalism is essential to a healthy democracy. We are lucky at Goshen College to have editorial independence that is well respected, and it is easy to take that for granted.

Beyond our campus, the censorship of national legacy media organizations has been rapidly increasing since the reelection of President Donald Trump in November 2024. As of March, POLITICO reported seven active lawsuits against media organizations and publishers — such as BBC, The New York Times and CNN — from the president and his administration.

However, this censorship is not limited to the current presidential administration, or just the media. CNN reports that rapper Macklemore was dropped as an opening act on Monday from the remainder of the U.S. leg of Ed Sheeran’s The Loop tour. The removal comes after Macklemore shared continued support for Palestine and opposition to genocide during a show at MetLife Stadium.

Macklemore shared to his Instagram on Monday that Robert Kraft, owner of Gillette Stadium — an upcoming stop on Sheeran’s tour — decided to bar any performance from the rapper, and rallied other venue owners to do the same.

This is censorship of free speech by people with money and power. The FCC is directly violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which ensures the freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and the right to petition. Whether it’s government lawsuits against large media organizations or white billionaires who conflate being anti-genocide with being antisemitic, they are all targeting dissenting voices that are a threat to their power and comfort.

It’s not a coincidence that we’re seeing an increase in media censorship. Lisa Sirch, in her book “Social Media Impacts on Conflict and Democracy: The Techtonic Shift,” said, “Authoritarian governments intent on undermining democracy … have a long history of denouncing legacy news media as ‘the enemy of the people.’”

In February 2017, The Washington Post reported that President Trump, on Twitter, called the media the “enemy of the American People.”

The Nazi party in early 20th century Germany strictly enforced censorship of the media to silence dissenting voices and amplify their cause with everything from book burnings to using the 1936 Olympics as propaganda and hiding the truth about what was happening in the concentration camps.

Following World War II, the Red Scare and McCarthyism used similar tactics to increase fear of communism in the U.S. — censoring dissenting voices by putting them on a blacklist with a threat to boycott media who were associated with anyone on the list.

It is no surprise to me now that we are seeing an increase in media censorship. We are witnessing the increased presence of militarization, nationalism, authoritarianism and fascism. We are witnessing ICE detaining our neighbors, bombs being sent with taxpayer money to kill innocent people across the world and repeated direct threats from President Trump to cheat and bribe his way to a third term — something which is also explicitly unconstitutional and violates the 22nd Amendment.

And yet, amidst the censorship and fear we must find hope. We cannot become complicit. Don’t let the wealthy few who control the algorithms dictate where you direct your attention.

Timothy Snyder, a historian who focuses on fascism in Europe and the Soviet Union, gathered “20 Lessons from the 20th Century” that relate to our current circumstances. I recommend that everyone read it in its entirety to further consider how we can resist authoritarianism.

The lesson I want to highlight right now is number eight: believe in truth. As Snyder said, “If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”

Despite Kraft’s attempts to silence Macklemore, all other supporting acts have dropped out of Sheeran’s The Loop tour in solidarity — echoing the message: “Free Palestine.”

Despite Kimmel’s interview with Talarico being barred from TV, it has garnered 11 million views on YouTube.

Despite what the wealthy elite want you to believe, we, as a collective people, hold the power.

Don’t be afraid to stand out and go against the status quo; without discomfort there is no growth. Read articles, books, poetry — don’t delegate your critical thinking and creativity to generative AI models. Recognize bias in the media you consume; investigate and figure things out for yourself. Support local and independent journalism, and keep reading The Record — GC’s editorially independent student paper since 1912.