
Provided
Former president Donald J. Trump’s October 2024 call to revoke the broadcast license of CBS for election interference put the spotlight (perhaps just for a hot second) on another place it belongs in American culture: our government policy toward media and the technology overrunning our lives.
“TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE. Election Interference.,” the ex-President posted, evidence-free, on his own platform, Truth Social.
“An UNPRECEDENTED SCANDAL!!!”
“[T]he Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History.”
At the end of the 19th century, the Lumière brothers premiered the first moving image film in Paris and Thomas Edison figured out electricity, the light bulb, and the phonograph. Advance the clock 130 years and toss in the advent of computational power and you get the technology steering our present moment: one where Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft have a combined market capitalization of $10 trillion but hardly any regulations over how they control our society.
Author Frank McCourt knows. A billionaire investor turned philanthropist and author, McCourt presents us with details about how our information system has failed us, but brings with them a game plan for urgent reform – what he calls, rightfully and with no exaggeration, “a once-in-a-civilization opportunity.”
We’ve become enthralled to our digital overlords, McCourt (and his co-author William J. Casey) tell us, each of us the digital equivalent of a feudal serf working land we don’t own.
When Amazon Web Services, for example, hosts a third of all websites; Google (with its 4+ billion users!) dominates search, email, video hosting, GPS services, document sharing, and smartphone software; Facebook collects 50,000 data points on each user; and Amazon and Facebook together take in “fully half” of all online advertising dollars, we’ve let our modern Rockefellers and Carnegies rule the roost.
"Our Biggest Fight" explains how these companies and the Internet as a whole have “evolved away” from earlier ideals into a system that is choking us. Inspired by Thomas Paine and his pamphlet Common Sense and the trust-busting of Teddy Roosevelt, McCourt presents plans for the “NewNet” and what he calls Project Liberty at www.projectliberty.io/
We need to “rearchitect” our media and technology ecosystem, McCourt says, with deeper and systematic consideration of data storage and portability and ownership, cybersecurity, and digital property rights. And it’s not just about the money. People and machines are now sliding “an array of racist, misogynist, judgmental, bullying, reductionist, untruthful content into our increasingly toxic online environments.”
He’s right.
And how about the math? In 2022 we each spent 151 minutes a day on social media. If you figure five billion people are online, and add up all the days in a year, that’s a lot of time that these companies have “sucked out of our lives” and “converted into advertising dollars.”
“We have a serious, global addiction problem,” McCourt writes. “A public health threat that overshadows even the recent global pandemic.” “Society is shaped by information,” McCourt tells us. Letting everything get away from us may turn out to be “one of the greatest mistakes human civilization has ever made.”
Frank McCourt one of the few who can see the symptoms of crisis today, diagnose it, and propose and help administer treatment. Those interested in building a new “social contract” for the Internet age should dive into his plan of action today. And now’s the time, before others with other plans, or concepts of plans, start taking away our broadcast licenses and more – by force.
* Peter B. Kaufman works at MIT. His new book, The Moving Image: A User’s Manual, comes out in February.
Bill Dinneen, left, and Ivan Kotchoubey, age 7, place a recently restored grave marker at the headstone of David Mallery, a Revolutionary War veteran, in Cornwall Sunday, May 25.
CORNWALL — On Sunday, May 25, Cornwall held a powerful ceremony to honor local veterans of the Revolutionary War.
At the cemetery on Route 4, about 25 attendees gathered to witness the placement of 10 grave markers. Bill Dinneen of the Cornwall Historical Society and Warren Stevens led the ceremony.
“These markers had gone missing from the cemetery, we don’t know when,” Dinneen said, showing six bronze and four cast iron markers that were recently restored and painted.
He explained the markers were found in bushes at the edge of the cemetery by Gene Swanson, of Washington Depot. It was unclear why they were removed from the gravestones, and Dinneen said there could be more elsewhere in the cemetery.
Bill Dinneen, left, and Warren Stevens explain the history, discovery and restoration process of the grave markers to attendees May 25.Photo by Riley Klein
“Today we have 10 markers. We have 32 names” of buried Revolutionary War veterans, Dinneen said. “The bronze markers will go to ranked soldiers,” such as sergeants, and “the cast ones will go to the oldest” of the infantry soldiers.
The restoration process included sandblasting, priming and painting. He was not certain, but Dinneen said the markers may have been originally placed by the government around World War I, at which time the original tombstones were replaced with harder stone.
Stevens explained the symbolism of the markers: A big star in the middle represents one of the colonies, 13 little stars represent all the colonies, the years 1775 and 1783 show the duration of the war, the words “A Patriot’s Grave” and “E Pluribus Unum. From many, there is one,” he said.
Susan Hellmann placed a bronze marker at the grave of her ancestor Noah Harrison. Photo by Riley Klein
Attendees, some of them descendants of the veterans, assisted in the placement of the markers.
Susan Hellmann, of Cornwall, said she would be placing a restored marker at the grave of “my great, great, great grandfather Noah Harrison” who served in the Revolution. “I feel like I’m going to cry. It’s just very touching, very powerful,” she said.
Dinneen read the rank, company and lifespan of each veteran as the markers were being placed, then Stevens fired a blast from his musket. When all the markers were set, the names of the other Revolutionary veterans buried in town were read aloud.
Warren Stevens fires his musket.Photo by Riley Klein
The ceremony was held as part of Memorial Day remembrances in Cornwall. It also marked the first official event in town for the nation’s 250th birthday with more to come.
As the occasion came to an end, a light rain began.
A bronze marker was placed at the grave of James Bierce, who lived to the age of 94 after serving in the Revolution with Captain Smith's Company. Bill Dinneen noted many of the Revolutionary War veterans buried in Cornwall lived to old ages. "The average age that these veterans died was 72 years old," he said.Photo by Riley Klein
LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School girls lacrosse won the 2025 Founders League championship with an 11-10 victory over Choate Rosemary Hall May 21.
The Bearcats battled back from behind by as many as four points.
MaryHelen McCooey scored the game-winning goal with about two minutes remaining.
The win marked the fourth consecutive Founders League title for Hotchkiss girls lacrosse.
The Marvelwood lacrosse team poses for a group photo May 20 after winning the HVAL title for the second year in row.
KENT — On Tuesday, May 20, Marvelwood School lacrosse defeated Woodhall School 15-9 in the Housatonic Valley Athletic League tournament final.
It was second straight HVAL championship win for the Pterodactyls and their fifth league title since 2018.
Marvelwood and Woodhall played twice this past season with Marvelwood winning both games. They met in the championship as the first and second ranked teams in the league.
In the pre-game huddle, Marvelwood Coach Zach Maizel pumped up his players and urged them to “be aggressive early.”
Eli Jamieson, No. 4, congratulates teammate C. Jones after a goal.Photo by Lans Christensen
Taking his message to heart, attackman Eli Jamieson scored in the first minute of game play. He scored twice more in the first period, which ended with Marvelwood ahead 6-3.
Woodhall played aggressively and stayed on the attack, but the first half ended 9-4 in favor of Marvelwood.
Jamieson was the key player on the Marvelwood squad, and he scored twice more in the final period to maintain the Pterodactyls’ lead.
Woodhall fought hard and possessed control for most of the final period, scoring five goals but falling to a final 15-9 Marvelwood victory.
HVRHS sophomore Ryan Segalla went three-for-three May 17 with Berkshire League gold in the 100m, 200m and 400m races. He was also on the gold-winning 4x400m relay team.
Berkshire League track and field wrapped up a season of competition with the league finals in Litchfield May 17. The BL festival followed with decathlon, heptathlon, steeplechase and hammer in Falls Village May 20 and Thomaston May 21.
The events included athletes from Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Gilbert School, Lakeview High School, Nonnewaug High School, Northwestern Regional High School, Shepaug Valley High School, Terryville High School and Thomaston High School.
In the gold medal tally, Nonnewaug led with 12 golds, Housatonic won 10, Northwestern won six, Thomaston won six, Lakeview won five and Shepaug won three.
For Housatonic, Senior Mia Dodge won the girls 300m hurdles.
Mia DodgePhoto by Riley Klein
Sophomore Ryan Segalla won the boys 100m, 200m and 400m races.
Senior Kyle McCarron won the boys 800m and 1600m races.
The boys 4x400m relay team of Anthony Labbadia, Patrick Money, Kyle McCarron and Ryan Segalla won gold.
Junior Anthony Labbadia won the boys triple jump by a margin of more than three feet. He also earned second place in the boys 400m race.
Senior Patrick Money won the decathlon.
Senior Gabi Titone won the steeplechase. Junior Olivia Brooks took bronze.
The girls 4x400m relay team of Mckenzie Lotz, Harper Howe, Mia Dodge and Maddy Johnson took silver. The same team took bronze in the 4x100m relay.
Harper Howe took silver in the girls 400m race.
Gabi Titone took silver in the girls 800m race.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class S state track and field meet will be held in New Britain on June 2.
Patrick Money
Photo by Riley Klein