Colbert, Stewart in the balance / Trump vs. MAGA / ‘I heard the baby crying’

Colbert, Stewart in the balance. Now that Paramount has settled Donald Trump’s revenge-driven lawsuit, media monitor Oliver Darcy says the ground is “shifting fast” for Trump-critical programming on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show and Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. (This important work is sadly behind a paywall that requires an email address. Update, 3:48 p.m.: LateNighter recounts this reporting, paywall-free, here.)

 Darcy adds: Likely new owners at Skydance want to rid CBS of “what they see as a liberal taint.”
 CNN’s Brian Stelter: “PBS and NPR have nine days left to await their federal funding fate.”
 Indiana Public Broadcasting’s cut its whole statewide reporting team.
 The American Prospect: Public media cuts hurt kids.

‘A travesty.’ Lawyer/columnist Robert Hubbell says the Supreme Court’s clearing of the way for Trump’s federal workforce reductions means the court’s “a lost cause. What remains is only the task of dismantling the reactionary majority by enlarging the Court.”
 Acknowledging what’s long been de facto policy, the IRS says religious institutions can endorse political candidates without losing their tax-exempt status.
 Touring Washington’s memorials, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg notes “lots of DEI ripe for the purging.”

‘The U.S. is much closer to making concentration camps than you think.’ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce says Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” is a sign of worse to follow.
 Drop Site: That facility’s cost has already ballooned to more than $600 million.
 404 Media: ICE is now searching medical bills.

Trump vs. MAGA. As the administration tries to shut down talk of a “client list” for the convicted—and now deceased—sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Poynter’s Tom Jones explains that Trump’s conspiracy-minded followers are having none of it.
 USA Today’s Chicago-based satirist Rex Huppke: “Did Donald Trump eat Jeffrey Epstein’s client list? Logic suggests he did.”
 Ronnie Chieng at The Daily Show: “The attorney general said the client list was on her desk. Let me guess—your desk also hung itself?”
 Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz attended Trump’s Iowa rally last week: “I witnessed the masculinity crisis … and got my chair stolen.”

 Grok’ed up. Zeteo: Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot has gone full Nazi.
 Popular Information: The use of AI by students and teachers is “a gigantic public experiment that no one has asked for.”
 The Revolving Door Project: “The artificial-intelligence industry is driving a gigantic increase in power consumption—while the Republican Party is doing all in its power to make sure that electricity is generated by pollution-spewing fossil fuels. … The result will be a major increase in all kinds of illness, including cancer.”

‘Chaos to come.’ ProPublica says Texas’ deadly flash flooding represents a taste of what’s in store “as the federal government is running away from the policies that might begin to protect the nation.”
 Poynter explores how a “100% inaccurate” story of two Texas girls’ miraculous rescue went national. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
 PolitiFact rates “Mostly False” the assertion that Trump has “defunded” the National Weather Service …
 … but The Lever reports: “Before the Texas disaster, Congress and successive presidents ignored demands to fully fund a nationwide system monitoring rivers for signs of flash floods.”
 The Onion: [Texas Sen.] “Ted Cruz: ‘Vacationing Is How I Grieve.’
 Unexpectedly heavy rain last night stranded more than a dozen motorists in Chicago.
 The Citizens Utility Board wants your energy efficiency tips.

‘One of the worst mass shootings in Chicago history.’ A Tribune editorial (gift link) calls on Mayor Johnson to dial down his “victory laps” on crime in the city after the shooting of 18 people—four killed—outside a River North club a week ago.
 Police say the shooting was “targeted,” with “a motive”—but the Trib says a “stubborn feud between gangs” has nevertheless left the River North neighborhood on edge.
 Gurnee cops are investigating shots fired Monday night—no one hurt—in the Six Flags parking lot.

‘A disenfranchised community in the lurch.’ With no notice, Oak Park’s struggling West Suburban Medical Center* has shut its obstetric and neonatal units.
 Columnist and former Illinois Rep. Marie Newman: The toll of Trump’s new budget includes 300 hospitals and health insurance for 17 million people.
 Illinois has fined and reprimanded a Champaign abortion provider accused of leaving half a fetus inside a woman’s body.
 Abortion, Every Day on Indiana’s crackdown on abortions: “Here’s what a reproductive police state looks like.”

‘I heard the baby crying.’ A 33-year-old man’s credited with rescuing a 7-month-old left on church steps after a carjacking in last week’s heat.
 A fresh advisory for parents: Beware knockoff car safety seats.

A free(r) man. Convicted former Chicago City Council member Ed Burke’s out of prison after nine months …
 … but he’ll have to serve more time in a halfway house or home confinement—followed by a year of court supervision.

So not all of what’s happening on Trump’s watch sucks.
 The Army’s ending its antiquated ceremonial horse programs, which cost a reported $2 million a year.

* Where your Chicago Public Square columnist’s three sons were born (a 1992 column about the birth of the third).

What did they do? / ‘Prime Day is a scam’ / ‘A botched laughingstock’

What did they do? Local officials in one of the Texas counties hardest hit by catastrophic flooding had yet to detail what actions they took to keep people safe ahead of the Fourth of July storms.
Federal emergency workers tell The Handbasket’s Marisa Kabas that response to the floods was delayed and deficient under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s leadership.
Timelapse video shows the water’s horrific rise.
PolitiFact: Beware viral—but fake—videos of Texas devastation.

‘Endangering the lives of patients.’ The Illinois-based American Academy of Pediatrics and five other big medical groups are suing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his decision to yank COVID-19 shots from a federal list of vaccines recommended for healthy kids and pregnant women.
The Tribune reports that adult education programs in Chicago—and across the nation—are in limbo as the Trump administration withholds funding.

Social insecurity. The Social Security Administration’s been blasting beneficiaries with false information about President Trump’s tax-and-spending overhaul.
Make no mistake: Social Security’s now in the propaganda biz.
Gov. Pritzker says 360,000 Illinoisans will lose food assistance under Trump’s budget overhaul.

‘I personally never use Amazon due to the way they treat their employees and Bezos’ behavior.’ Chicago Public Square reader Rosemary Caruk was disappointed to see yesterday’s Square link to a New York Times list of Prime Day deals.
Popular Information explains in detail why “Prime Day is a scam.”
To check whether a Prime price is truly a bargain, consider installing the Camel Camel Camel price tracker in your browser. (Image: Mostly Microsoft’s Copilot AI.)

Questionable cops on the rise. Invisible Institute and the Reader report that Chicago’s backing away from a 2017 pledge to release a list of secret “merit” promotions for police officers.
Police are warning South Side residents to beware a group of up to 10 people responsible for at least three robberies since mid-June.

‘A botched laughingstock.’ Sources tell investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein that what was intended as a federal show of force by immigration and customs agents yesterday in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park proved instead an embarrassment.
The AP reports the park was empty—especially after children at a summer day camp were rushed indoors to minimize their trauma.
An American Prospect photo essay from L.A. shares “scenes of a city under siege.”

Wait till they learn that Superman was created by two Jewish immigrants.’ Journalist Bobby Silverman is among many on social media piling on conservative talking heads up in arms about Superman director James Gunn’s assertion—true!—that Superman is an immigrant.
The character’s been promoting diversity since the 1950s.
Early buzz on the movie, which opens July 11, is good.

‘Shameful.’ That’s how Jon Stewart, host of Paramount-owned Comedy Central’s Daily Show, describes his bosses’ settlement with Trump.
Stewart’s first guest back after a vacation, 60 Minutes alumnus Steve Kroft, says Trump’s suit was “a shakedown.”
American Crisis columnist Margaret Sullivan blasts Paramount-owned CBS and The New York Times for separate failures to fulfill their public mission.
Press Watch proprietor Dan Froomkin: One of the Times’ missions “is to take cheap shots at the left.”
Surveying CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s journalistic past, Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob concludes: “Don’t be surprised if he ends up on Fox.”
NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas will anchor his Thursday show from Chicago.
Eric Zorn shares a tip for print subscribers to the Tribune: Opt out of charges for those so-called “premium” supplements with a simple email.

A Square advertiser

‘i never read these so why clutter my inbox.’ Square yesterday lost a reader who offered that explanation.
You can help replace that reader by recommending Square to a friend.
A drop in the ol’ Square tip jar also eases rejection’s sting.

Subscribe to Square.