Global censorship has surged in recent years, but a brave few have steadfastly stood against tyrannical regimes attempting to tighten their grip in America and abroad. For the second annual MRC Free Speech Award, the Media Research Center chose to singularly honor Charlie Kirk, who devoted his life's work to protecting free speech and encouraging not merely Americans but citizens around the world to exercise their right to speak without fear. In addition, the MRC has recognized Trump officials and members of Congress, and will recognize legal officers as well. Public and foreign free speech advocates like MRC founder Brent Bozell, tech mogul Elon Musk and best-selling author J.K. Rowling also deserve praise for their dedication to speaking boldly in support of free speech even at personal cost.  As recent as May 2025, Kirk visited the U.K., which he said had “become a totalitarian country” because of its stringent censorship policies that have jailed citizens for disfavored speech critical of the government. Indeed, London Metropolitan Police just dropped an investigation into Irish comedy creator Graham Linehan after he was arrested at Heathrow airport last month. He had written X posts disagreeing with the left’s “transgender” ideology while in the United States — where he now lives — and authorities were waiting to arrest him as soon as he set foot back in the U.K. A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson told Sky News that "no further action” should be taken in this case.  Others, however, have not been so lucky. As Kirk pointed out in May, UK citizen Lucy Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in prison for posts she made criticizing U.K. immigration policy. The posts were deemed “threatening or abusive,” and she later deleted them. Nonetheless, her attempts to appeal her case and sentencing were denied. At the time, Kirk called it “outrageous” and asked, “Is this a way that a liberal democracy and an ‘ally’ of the United States acts?”  Other countries have taken a similarly harsh approach to quashing speech. In February, CBS’s 60 Minutes revealed that Germany has whole police units devoted to this kind of work, and one Lower Saxony unit reportedly had around 3,500 cases it was investigating.  Similar persecution has occurred in Brazil, the European Union, France, Finland and Romania. And under the Biden administration, the United States was not far behind. MRC uncovered 57 censorship initiatives directed by the Biden administration across 93 federal agencies that targeted free speech in the courts, through shadow government programs and via government collusion with Big Tech companies and non-profits. Until recently, censorship in America was hot. But thanks to the tireless work of Kirk and other notable free speech warriors that MRC is now celebrating, the tide is starting to turn. The MRC is proud to recognize the following free speech advocates for their actions in defense of Americans’ free speech rights: L. Brent Bozell III In 2025, Brent retired from the Media Research Censor, a free speech organization he founded and led for almost four decades. He has been the nation’s leading champion fighting against left-wing bias in news media and popular culture. He was also the first to sound the alarm about Big Tech companies suppressing conservative voices, leading the fight to stop this un-American censorship. No one can deny the incredible, lasting impact he has made on American culture. Big Tech and Big Media were no match for him.  Elon Musk  As the founder of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk showed incredible courage by dismantling Biden’s censorship agencies, firing hundreds of government censors and cutting off thousands of censorship grants, even as terrorists were attacking his business. Musk has also been one of the few men brave enough to try to hold OpenAI accountable for its unlawful and deceptive business model. Now, Musk is attempting to build a free speech social media platform, a free speech AI, and a free speech public encyclopedia — a daunting quest worthy of the real-life Iron Man. J.K. Rowling (United Kingdom) J.K. Rowling risked imprisonment by forcefully speaking out against Scotland’s hate speech law, which created a new category of crime for recognizing biological reality.  MRC presented 35 pro-free speech advocates with the prestigious MRC Free Speech Award last year, honoring the original vision for Free Speech Week with 2024 awards. The 2024 award winners included: five U.S. senators, 10 U.S. congressmen, 10 officials ranging from attorneys general to governors and from state legislators to the FCC, as well as 10 thought leaders. Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

Lawmakers and the public have long grown tired of Silicon Valley’s "move fast and break things" ethos. But Big Tech hasn’t learned its lesson.In the mad rush to roll out artificial intelligence, companies have cast aside basic corporate responsibility. Meta’s chatbots allowed children to engage in sexual conversations. OpenAI’s ChatGPT helped a child plan and commit suicide. And mounting evidence shows AI chatbots harming mental health, particularly for children.OpenAI has created a copyright infringement factory.The latest example of Silicon Valley’s negligence? Mass copyright infringement.The wild digital westWhen AI products like ChatGPT were new, copyright infringement — while potentially common in AI training — was more opaque. The early versions of today’s large language models weren't really capable of producing realistic copies of original copyrighted works that could compete with the originals. Moreover, training data was hidden from public view.But new releases, particularly OpenAI’s Sora 2, have smashed that paradigm. This past week, X and other social media platforms have been flooded with Sora 2 users’ reproductions of TV shows like “Family Guy,” “South Park,” “SpongeBob,” and more. While these clips are not yet perfect replicas, they are extremely close, and it is likely a matter of years — if not months — before users can produce copyright-infringing content that is essentially indistinguishable from the originals.Flipping the scriptOpenAI initially put the onus on copyright holders to “opt out” of their creations from being used in Sora 2. But this simply is not how copyright law works. In fact, it violates the express purpose of copyright law: to ensure that your work stays yours. Others have to ask you for permission to opt in to using your work; reversing that would render copyright law toothless.After the understandable outcry from copyright holders and actors’ guilds, OpenAI changed its copyright policies, switching from the opt-out model to opt-in. Rights holders now choose whether to have their creations included in Sora 2.CEO Sam Altman seemed to imply that he was surprised at the backlash. “I think the theory of what it was going to feel like to people, and then actually seeing the thing, people had different responses,” he told the Verge. “It felt more different to images than people expected.”This dubious claim is not an excuse to violate copyright laws wantonly. In waiting days to change course, Altman has also opened a Pandora’s box: the idea that AI can create entire seasons of your favorite shows. Altman knows that users will want it and may hope that the pressure will force copyright holders to take a deal that doesn’t fully represent the value of their intellectual property.Altman has said as much. “We are going to try sharing some of this revenue with rights holders who want their characters generated by users,” he wrote recently. His questionable usage of “try” notwithstanding, the game he is playing is clear: Audiences are going to want this. You either give us permission — after which we will “try” to compensate you — or people will likely use AI to violate your copyright anyway.RELATED: Does anyone think we’re up to the task of controlling AI? Mininyx Doodle via iStock/Getty ImagesCongress must actNone of this will eliminate AI’s chilling ability to generate lifelike images of people. While the Trump administration cracked down on some of the worst offenders with the Take It Down Act — which bans involuntarily created AI porn — you can still easily create false images of people doing all sorts of things.For now, the predominant use case may be “funny” videos of SpongeBob fleeing from police. But it would be a simple task, for example, to replace SpongeBob with realistic videos of innocent people committing crimes.OpenAI and other AI companies have, in essence, created a copyright infringement factory that puts the onus on copyright holders to vindicate their rights, while signaling that they may leverage a rabid user base if copyright holders don’t get in line. This isn’t right, and it shouldn’t be how the law works. Given how flippantly OpenAI and other Big Tech companies have treated the law, Congress needs to consider legal clarifications that force these firms to change their behavior.

Among his profiles for Rolling Stone were features on Dylan, Bowie, Elton, Joni, Eagles, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and The Who. The post Director/Writer Cameron Crowe Publishes His Memoir, ‘The Uncool’—Review appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

In Episode 419 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger travel to Portland, Maine, to search for John L. Aitchison, the man, they say, who only spoke twice. Back in 1864, something happened to 44-year-old Aitchison that made him quit every part of life. For the rest of his days he didn’t work, didn’t venture outside, and spoke only twice. BECOME A LEGENDARY PATRON: https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends CREDITS: Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger Edited by: Ray Auger Guest Voice: Marv Anderson Theme Music by: John Judd SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST FOR FREE: Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Podcasts | TuneIn | iHeartRadio JOIN OUR SUPER-SECRET: New England Legends Facebook Group

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