Keen On America

Is Europe about to become the World's Third Tech Superpower? In our regular That Was The Week round-up of tech news, Keith Teare says NO!, arguing that the EU’s increasingly aggressive regulation of Apple and Google will relegate Europe to increasing irrelevance. But I’m not so sure. Just as Europe is finally establishing its military independence from Washington, so I suspect the same will become eventually true of technology. Sure, Europe will never probably develop big tech companies with the global muscle of Tencent or Google. But, in the long run, as Europe establishes economic and military autonomy from the United States, I expect the appearance of native European tech companies that will, at least, be competitive with Chinese and American corporations.

Here are our 5 KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways in this conversation with Keith Teare:

* Europe's regulatory approach to tech is viewed skeptically: Keith sees the European Commission's attempts to regulate American tech companies (particularly Apple) as counterproductive, potentially driving innovation away rather than fostering it. We discuss whether Europe's regulatory stance will lead to either excessive red tape or the development of state-subsidized European tech alternatives.

* AI continues to advance rapidly: Our conversation repeatedly references how "AI marches on" as an inevitability. We discuss Sam Altman's view that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) will become ubiquitous like electricity or transistors, diffusing into everything and becoming cheap and widely available.

* A possible cultural shift in tech and politics: We discuss an article by Jaye Chen about why the political right is winning over STEM graduates. She suggests that progressive movements have positioned tech as problematic while conservative messaging portrays technology as an asset, making it more appealing to STEM grads like Chen.

* Tech industry geography is changing: Keith emphasizes that the "center of world innovation has moved to China" and predicts this shift to Asia will be "the story for the next 30 years." We compare this to historical shifts in economic power and debate whether America and Europe are in relative decline.

* New AI applications are emerging in various fields: Our conversation highlights several new AI applications, including a podcaster using AI to search his own episodes (Chris Williamson's Modern Wisdom), Mercor (an AI recruitment platform that has scaled rapidly), and Skyreel AI (a text-to-film AI agent that can create realistic videos from text descriptions).

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American history, Clay Risen reminds us, has an uncanny knack of repeating itself. In Red Scare, his important new book about blacklists, McCarthyism and the making of modern America, Risen suggests that Trump and MAGA have happened before. First as the tragedy of Joe McCarthy then as farcical Donald Trump? Or might today’s latest chapter in the paranoid style of American history actually be its most consequential and thus tragic?

Here are the 5 KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways in this conversation with Risen:

* Historical Parallels to Today: Risen suggests that there are striking parallels between the McCarthy era and current American politics under Trump, with similar tactics being used to target perceived enemies and "others" within society. The infrastructure created during previous periods of paranoia (like the FBI and certain immigration laws) is being repurposed in the present day.

* Bipartisan Nature of the Red Scare: While often associated with Republicans, the Red Scare had bipartisan elements. Risen explains that Democrats like Harry Truman implemented loyalty programs, and figures like JFK positioned themselves carefully regarding anti-communist sentiment. This challenges the notion that such movements are solely partisan.

* Targeting Vulnerable Groups: Both historically and today, political movements often target the most vulnerable groups first. During the Red Scare, Risen explains that was suspected communists and homosexuals; today, transgender people face similar targeting as political pawns and scapegoats.

* Impact Beyond the Obviously Political: Risen reminds us that the Red Scare affected ordinary Americans across many sectors - teachers, Hollywood professionals, government workers - whose lives were ruined based on rumors, associations, or past affiliations. This led to widespread conformity as people self-censored to avoid scrutiny.

* The Role of Institutions as Backstops: Risen is cautiously optimistic about how America’s current paranoid periods might end. He suggests that the judicial system (particularly the Supreme Court) represents the most effective backstop against MAGA excesses, much as the Warren Court eventually helped end McCarthy-era abuses of civil liberties.

Clay Risen, a reporter and editor at The New York Times, is the author of Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America. His other recent books include The Impossible Collection of Whiskey (October, 2020) and Single Malt: A Guide to the Whiskies of Scotland (October, 2018). He is also the author of the spirits bestseller American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation’s Favorite Spirit, now in its sixth printing with more than 100,000 copies sold. It is widely considered the bible on American whiskey and placed Risen among the leading authorities on the history, business, and diversity of U.S. spirits. Risen has served as a judge on multiple spirit award committees, including the prestigious Ultimate Spirits Challenge. In addition to Red Scare, Risen is the author of The Crowded Hour: Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Riders and the Dawn of the American Century, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019 and a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Prize in Military History; A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination; and The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act. A graduate of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and the University of Chicago, Risen grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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What is the MAGA movement’s aesthetic? According to the New York Times’ Dan Brooks, it’s an aesthetic captured by the generative AI video “Trump Gaza”. Childishly absurd, it’s an aesthetic, Brooks suggests, of “bearded belly dancers, an Elon Musk look-alike on the beach and a golden statue of President Trump”. It’s not reality, of course. There are neither bearded belly dancers nor golden statues of Trump in Gaza right now. It doesn’t even resemble actual MAGA America. But as Brooks notes, the MAGA aesthetic - driven by AI generated visuals - is social and cultural “posturing”. It’s the post-ironic irony of social media. Unseriously serious. Designed for Instagram and TikTok.

Here are the five KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways in our conversation with Dan Brooks:

* The MAGA style employs a unique form of irony - Brooks describes it as "unstable irony" rather than the "stable irony" of traditional satirists like Jonathan Swift or Stephen Colbert. This style mixes sincere statements with exaggerations and jokes in a way that makes it difficult to determine what's meant seriously.

* Generative AI has been embraced by MAGA communities - The conversation highlights how conservative online communities have adopted AI technology for creating content (like the Gaza video discussed) at a higher rate than other groups, enabling them to produce visually impressive media quickly that aligns with their messaging style.

* The relationship between politics and morality is shifting (duh) - Brooks contrasts his earlier writing about how social media "weaponized morality" with the MAGA approach, which he characterizes as "anti-moral" rather than amoral—a deliberate rejection of or reaction against perceived moralism in American politics.

* Politics increasingly operates on "vibes" rather than facts - Brooks suggests that the "fact-based era in politics" may have been an illusion, with voters making decisions based on associations and cultural identity rather than policy specifics or factual information.

* Contemporary American culture is saturated in irony - The conversation traces how irony has become embedded in American communication since the mid-90s, when even institutional messaging began adopting an ironic stance. Brooks notes that in current culture, "the worst thing you can be is cringe or overly sincere."

Dan Brooks is a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Harper’s, Pitchfork, and other publications. He lives in Montana with his handsome dog.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Andrew Checchia, a young journalist at NewsJunkie.net, requested an interview with me about the current state of American journalism. So here are my thoughts about the Fourth Estate’s role in democracy, our supposedly dwindling trust in media, the ongoing cult of amateurism in journalism and Trump’s successful merging of news and entertainment.

Here are the five KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways from my interview with Checchia:

* The Fourth Estate's Role in Democracy

* I present journalism not as a formal branch of government but as a consequence of democracy

* I believe journalism is necessary for a functioning democracy but I certainly don’t think people can or should be forced to consume news

* I defend "elite" journalism, comparing it to other professional fields like medicine or law

* Trust in Media

* I argue that while trust in journalism has declined, people who pay for subscriptions to The New York Times or Wall Street Journal likely trust those sources

* I suggest (duh) the real problem isn't with journalism itself but with broader social, educational and cultural problems

* I argue that traditional newspapers provide understood biases, while social media offers no way to determine credibility or truth

* Digital Media and Amateurism

* I discuss how the internet has disrupted traditional media through Web 2.0 style platforms like Craigslist (which decimated local newspapers)

* I’m skeptical about most nonprofit news experiments, believing they only preach to the converted

* New platforms like Substack, I argue, tend to create a winner-take-all economy rather than supporting a new middle class of journalists

* Politics and Entertainment

* I note how politics and entertainment have now totally collapsed together in American culture

* I discuss how Trump treated politics like reality television, serializing it for an audience already comfortable with this type of medium

* I believe people have become addicted to narrative forms derived from reality television and serialized Netflix style shows

* Future Outlook

* While careful about making predictions, I suggest the current bizarre political situation cannot continue indefinitely

* I express cautious optimism about younger generations, believing they've been unfairly written off and will eventually take power

* I note a pathetic, “Schumeresque” gerontocratic quality in American politics that needs complete overhaul

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The musician and actor Daryl Davis probably knows more about the Klu Klux Klan than any other living African-American. As the author of Klan-Destine Relationships and his latest The Klan Whisperer, Davis has written about not only his infiltration of the Klan but his befriending of regretful Klansmen like Scott Shepherd (My wife, Cassandra Knight, also wrote about her dinner with Shepherd). Davis’ new book should probably be entitled My Life with the Klan. But as the ideas of the Klan have become more mainstream in the last few years, so the traditional KKK itself seems like a quaint relic of a more innocent past. In the old days, you had to hide under a white sheet to say dumb things about people of other colors or faiths. Now these same dumb assumptions are being openly peddled by powerful media figures and elected politicians.

Here are the five KEEN ON AMERICA take-aways from our conversation with Davis:

* The power of conversation as a tool against hatred: Davis emphasizes that conversation is "the greatest tool or weapon to dismantle conflict" despite being "the least expensive" and "the most underused." His approach involves engaging directly with KKK members to challenge their beliefs through dialogue rather than confrontation.

* People can change their racist beliefs: Davis firmly believes that racist ideologies are learned behaviors that can be unlearned. He makes a distinction between inherent traits (like a leopard's spots) and acquired beliefs, arguing that "what can be learned can be unlearned." He provides concrete examples like Scott Shepard, a former Klansman who completely transformed his worldview.

* Understanding racism through personal experience: Davis's background as a diplomat's son who traveled extensively gave him a unique perspective on racism. Having been exposed to diversity from an early age, he was shocked when he first experienced racism at age 10, which led to his lifelong quest to understand and combat prejudice.

* Core human values transcend differences: Davis believes that regardless of background, all humans share five core values: wanting to be loved, respected, heard, treated fairly and truthfully, and wanting the same things for their families as others want for theirs. He uses this understanding as a foundation for connecting with people across ideological divides.

* The importance of distinguishing between ignorance and stupidity: Davis makes a crucial distinction between people who are ignorant (lacking information) versus stupid (having information but ignoring it). He believes education and exposure can cure ignorance, which is why he focuses on providing information and personal connection to those with racist beliefs.

Dr. Daryl Davis is an international recording artist who has performed and toured all 50 States and around the world. He has performed extensively with Chuck Berry, The Legendary Blues Band (formerly The Muddy Waters Blues Band), Elvis Presley’s Jordanaires, and many others. As an actor Daryl received rave reviews for his stage role in The Time Of Your Life, and has done film and television roles including HBO’s acclaimed series The Wire. As a race relations expert Dr. Daryl Davis has received numerous awards and high acclaim for his book Klan-Destine Relationships and his award-winning film documentary Accidental Courtesy. He is the first Black author to write a book on the Ku Klux Klan based upon in-person interviews and personal encounters. His ability to get racists to renounce their ideology has sent Daryl to travel all over the United States and the world to share his methodology.

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Long-time views of the show know that I’ve always been skeptical of equating Trump/MAGA with European fascism. I’ve always thought it historically facile and misleading. But I’m beginning to change my mind. Take, for example, David Masciotra’s thoughts on Trump’s “ravenous bigotry” toward the trans community. As Masciotra warns, this is the kind of organized, willful persecution of powerless minorities that fascist parties openly pursued while in power. Meanwhile, as Masciotra notes, prominent Dems like Gavin Newsom are staging a “shameful retreat” on trans rights and inviting neo-fascists like Steve Bannon onto their podcast shows. And then there’s Schumer. Oy.

Here are the five KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways with our conversation with Masciotra

* Democrats' retreat on trans rights: Masciotra argues that Democrats, including figures like Gavin Newsom and Rahm Emanuel, are retreating from defending transgender rights after the election loss, which he views as both a moral failure and a strategic mistake.

* Targeted anti-trans rhetoric: According to Masciotra, 41% of Trump's campaign ads specifically targeted transgender Americans, demonstrating how the issue has been deliberately weaponized for political purposes despite transgender people making up less than 1% of the population.

* Trans rights as the "first course": Masciotra warns that "bigotry is ravenous," suggesting that abandoning transgender rights opens the door to attacks on other minority groups, comparing it to a restaurant menu where "trans people are the first course."

* Democratic leadership criticism: David Masciotra is highly critical of Democratic leadership, particularly Chuck Schumer, whom he describes as "pathetic" and "inert" in his response to Trump's policies, with Masciotra noting a generational divide in the party's approach to resistance.

* Authoritarian tactics and erasure: Masciotra discusses concerning developments like the National Park Service removing transgender references from Stonewall Rebellion information, which he characterizes as a "totalitarian termination of knowledge" mirroring authoritarian tactics described in Orwell's 1984.

David Masciotra is an author, lecturer, and journalist. He is the author of Exurbia Now: The Battleground of American Democracy (Melville House Publishing, 2024) I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters (I.B. Tauris, 2020), Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky), Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishers, 2017), and Metallica by Metallica, a 33 1/3 book from Bloomsbury Publishers, which has been translated into Chinese and Greek. In 2010, Continuum Books published his first book, Working On a Dream: The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen. Masciotra writes regularly for the New Republic, Washington Monthly, Progressive, the Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, No Depression, and the Daily Ripple. He has also written for Salon, the Daily Beast, CNN, Atlantic, Washington Post, AlterNet, Indianapolis Star, and CounterPunch. Several of his political essays have been translated into Spanish for publication at Korazon de Perro.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Will AI kill Apple? That’s the (absurd) question with which Keith Teare and I begin our THAT WAS THE WEEK tech summary. We conclude that their failure to develop an in-house LLM or introduce a timely intelligence application in mobile won’t , of course, destroy Apple. But as Keith and I discuss, the redundancy of its Siri architecture is now forcing Apple to get serious about AI. So should that mean totally scraping Siri? Or acquiring Anthropic or Perplexity? Or does Tim Cook need to be replaced by a more AI friendly CEO ? Sam Altman, perhaps?

Here’s our KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways for this week’s conversation with Keith:

* Apple's AI Struggles: Apple is facing criticism for its AI implementation, particularly for announcing features at their developer conference that weren't delivered. However, Keith argues this failure may not matter much since consumers can access better AI tools through third-party apps on their iPhones.

* The Future of Voice Interfaces: Both hosts suggest that voice and listening capabilities represent a major untapped opportunity in tech. Keith recommends using OpenAI's conversational mode with AirPods for an impressive experience, indicating that voice interfaces could become a primary way we interact with AI.

* Perplexity vs. Anthropic Acquisition: There's discussion about whether Apple should acquire an AI company, with Keith suggesting Perplexity (valued at approximately $9-15 billion) would be a better fit than Anthropic because it combines web search with AI capabilities.

* Sam Altman and OpenAI Criticism: Keith criticizes Sam Altman for claiming DeepSeek is "state-controlled," suggesting this is a competitive tactic rather than reality. This is notable as Keith has typically been positive about OpenAI.

* Future of Coding and App Development: The conversation touches on Cursor (an AI code editor valued at $10 billion despite being less than a year old) and how AI is transforming app development. Keith suggests that in the future, startups may not need to hire engineers if founders learn to use AI coding tools, potentially revolutionizing the startup ecosystem.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

So who, exactly is government. It’s the question that Michael Lewis and an all-star team of writers address in a particularly timely new volume of essays. Who is Government? According to the Montana based Sarah Vowell, author of “The Equalizer”, an essay in the volume about the National Archives, government enables all American citizens to find stories about themselves. Vowell praises the modesty of most government employees. But she warns, the work of public servants like the National Archives' Pamela Wright is anything but modest and represents the core foundation of American democracy. Vowell’s message is the antidote to the chainsaw. Essential listening in our surreal times.

Here are the five Keen On America takeaways in this conversation with Vowell:

* The National Archives as a democratic resource: Pamela Wright's work at the National Archives focused on digitizing records (over 300 million so far) to make them accessible to all Americans, regardless of where they live. This democratization of access allows people to bypass intimidating physical buildings and access their history from anywhere.

* Public servants are often modest and unsung: Sarah describes how government workers like Wright tend to be modest, team-oriented people who focus on doing their job rather than seeking recognition. This stands in contrast to more visible or self-promoting public figures.

* Personal connections to national archives: The conversation reveals how Americans can find their own family stories within government records. Sarah discovered her own family history, including her grandfather's WPA work and connections to the Cherokee Nation's Trail of Tears through archival documents.

* Government's impact on opportunity: Sarah emphasizes how government programs like the Higher Education Act of 1965 created opportunities that changed her family's trajectory from poverty to professional careers through access to public education and financial assistance programs.

* The interconnectedness of government services and American life: The conversation concludes with Sarah's observation about how government services form an "ecosystem of opportunity" that impacts everything from education to outdoor recreation jobs in Montana, with each part connected to others in ways that aren't always visible but are essential to how society functions.

Sarah Vowell is the New York Times bestselling author of seven nonfiction books on American history and culture. By examining the connections between the American past and present, she offers personal, often humorous accounts of American history as well as current events and politics. Her book, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, explores both the ideas and the battles of the American Revolution, especially the patriot founders' alliance with France as personified by the teenage volunteer in George Washington's army, the Marquis de Lafayette. Vowell’s book, Unfamiliar Fishes is the intriguing history of our 50th state, Hawaii, annexed in 1898. Replete with a cast of beguiling and often tragic characters, including an overthrown Hawaiian queen, whalers, missionaries, sugar barons, Teddy Roosevelt and assorted con men, Unfamiliar Fishes is another history lesson in Americana as only Vowell can tell it – with brainy wit and droll humor. The Wordy Shipmates examines the New England Puritans and their journey to and impact on America. She studies John Winthrop’s 1630 sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” and the bloody story that resulted from American exceptionalism. And she also traces the relationship of Winthrop, Massachusetts’ first governor, and Roger Williams, the Calvinist minister who founded Rhode Island – an unlikely friendship that was emblematic of the polar extremes of the American foundation. Throughout she reveals how American history can show up in the most unexpected places in our modern culture, often in poignant ways. Her book Assassination Vacation is a haunting and surprisingly hilarious road trip to tourist sites devoted to the murders of presidents Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. Vowell examines what these acts of political violence reveal about our national character and our contemporary society. She is also the author of two essay collections, The Partly Cloudy Patriot and Take the Cannoli. Her first book Radio On, is her year-long diary of listening to the radio in 1995. She was guest editor for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017. Most recently she contributed an essay for Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis (Riverhead, March 18, 2025). Vowell’s thirty years as a journalist and columnist began in the freewheeling atmosphere of the weekly newspapers of the 1990s, including The Village Voice, the Twin Cities’ City Pages and San Francisco Weekly, where she was the pop music columnist. An original contributor to McSweeney’s, she has worked as a columnist for Salon and Time, a reviewer for Spin, a reporter for GQ, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, where she covered politics, history, education and life in Montana. She was a contributing editor for the public radio show This American Life from 1996-2008, where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries and toured the country in many of the program’s live shows. Her notable side projects have included a decade as the founding president of 826NYC, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students aged 6-18 in Brooklyn; producing a filmed oral history series commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Montana Constitutional Convention of 1972; and occasional voice acting, including her role as teen superhero Violet Parr in Brad Bird’s Academy Award-winning The Incredibles, and its sequel, Incredibles 2, from Pixar Animation Studios.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, A...

As MAGA continues to vandalize the Federal bureaucracy, some progressives are beginning to publicly acknowledge their role in the historic undermining of the US government. In his provocative new book Why Nothing Works, the self-styled “progressive” Marc Dunkelman argues that it was the left - in their cultural aversion to power over the last half century - who have broken the U.S. government. If progressives want to get something…. anything, in fact, done in America - from building high speed railways to more affordable housing - Dunkelman argues that the Democrats need to once again embrace positive government. Don’t blame Trump for Musk’s chainsaw, Dunkelman tells the Democrats. Blame yourselves.

Here are the 5 KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways in this conversation with Dunkelman:

* The Progressive Dilemma: Progressivism has two competing impulses that need to be in balance - one that seeks to centralize power to accomplish major projects (the "Hamiltonian" approach), and another that is suspicious of centralized authority and seeks to distribute power (the "Jeffersonian" approach). Since the 1960s, the balance has shifted heavily toward suspicion of power.

* Crisis of Effective Governance: The current system has so many checks and constraints that even widely supported public interest projects can't get off the ground. Dunkelman cites the Biden administration's EV charger initiative that produced only 58 chargers from $5 billion in funding due to regulatory barriers and implementation challenges.

* Historical Shift in Progressive Attitude: The 1960s-70s marked a turning point when progressive attitudes shifted from trusting centralized authority to deep skepticism. Dunkelman points to figures like Robert Moses (exposed in "The Power Broker") and Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley as embodying a form of centralized power that became viewed as problematic.

* Political Consequences: This dysfunction in government has contributed to populist backlash, with voters supporting figures like Trump who promise to take a "sledgehammer" to institutions they see as failing. The inability to deliver visible results has undermined progressive credibility.

* Path Forward: Progressives need to develop a new narrative focused on making government work effectively rather than just opposing power. Dunkelman suggests "permitting reform" and similar practical measures need to be central to the progressive agenda, rather than continuing the stale debate about moving left or right.

Marc J. Dunkelman is a fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and a former fellow at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management. During more than a decade working in politics, he worked for Democratic members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and as a senior fellow at the Clinton Foundation. The author of The Vanishing Neighbor, Dunkelman’s work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, and Politico. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The New York Times’ David Enrich is one of America’s most tenacious investigative journalists. So when he comes out with a book entitled Murder the Truth, we should take note. There’s a campaign, Enrich warns, sometimes secret, sometimes open, to undermine the First Amendment and press freedom, thereby protecting the rich and powerful. Led by Clarence Thomas, Enrich explains, it’s an attempt to call into question the 1964 Supreme Court’s 1964 New York Times vs Sullivan decision on libel. Undermine this critical judgement on press freedom, Enrich warns, and the truth could, indeed, by murdered in the United States.

Here are the five key take-aways in our conversation with David Enrich:

* New York Times v. Sullivan is a crucial legal precedent for press freedom - This 1964 Supreme Court case established the "actual malice" standard that gives journalists protection when reporting on public figures, allowing them to make good-faith mistakes without facing ruinous litigation.

* There's a coordinated effort to weaken press protections - Enrich describes a network of conservative lawyers, activists, judges, and wealthy individuals working to undermine New York Times v. Sullivan, with Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch already expressing interest in reconsidering the precedent.

* Legal harassment is already silencing journalism - Even with current protections in place, powerful individuals and organizations are weaponizing defamation lawsuits to intimidate journalists, particularly affecting smaller, independent outlets that lack the resources to fight prolonged legal battles.

* Media ownership is responding to political pressure - The conversation touches on how even billionaire media owners like Jeff Bezos (Washington Post) appear to be making editorial decisions based on fears of government retaliation under the Trump administration.

* The threat to press freedom is incremental, not sudden - Enrich argues we may be at a pivotal moment where the campaign against press freedoms is moving from rhetoric to tangible action, comparing it to the "frog in boiling water" - a gradual process that may only be recognized in retrospect.

David Enrich is the Finance Editor at The New York Times. He previously was an editor and reporter at The Wall Street Journal in New York and London. He has won numerous journalism awards, including the 2016 Gerald Loeb Award for feature writing. David grew up in Lexington, Mass., and graduated from Claremont McKenna College in California. He lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.