That is one of several plaques around San Antonio that memorializes William Barrett Travis’s desperate but inspiring letter on this date in 1836 calling for assistance as the fortress Travis commanded found itself under siege by the Mexican army. Last year at this time, I’m ashamed to say, I was too preoccupied to write about the Alamo, its defenders and its importance in American history and lore. I’m just as preoccupied now, frankly, but also determined not to neglect my duty to give proper respect and acknowledgement to 220 or so volunteers who, by their courage, comradery and dedication to a cause, displayed the best of the American spirit. Travis, Bowie, Crockett, Bonham and the rest would have really gotten a kick out of Trump’s post-assassination attempt theater.
Meanwhile,
1. I won’t be using the History Channel’s daily history prompts from now on. It seriously hacked me off, first by insisting that I consent to an A&E “Consumer Agreement” and not making a way to consent to it evident, but worse, presenting me with this monster (skip to the end; for God’s sake don’t try to read it!)
I have lectured and written abut this before. No ethical lawyer should prepare such a thing which they know with 100% certainty that literally no one can or will read. That’s not informed consent. That’s chicanery. Nor should a consumers have to pay lawyers to explain what what they are agreeing to. If I were asked to advise a client about the propriety of inflicting such a document on anyone, I would a) end up charging them several thousand dollars for my time and b) tell them that if they couldn’t cut the agreement down to three pages while defining every legal term in it, I would regard it as signature significance for an untrustworthy company. Give consumers a video to listen to that explains what the document covers in simple English. Something…anything but that mess. This is how Disney ended up using the agreement to sign up for a free trial on Disney+ to try to dodge a negligence suit at EPCOT. Over the past year, as I have been digging out from a financial disaster, I’ve become really good at saying, “You know what? I don’t want or need this service enough to tolerate the way you manipulate and mistreat customers. Screw you.”
2. Good. Now fire everyone else. MSNBC finally fired racist, Trump-Deranged, abrasive, perpetually furious Joy Reid. I would view it as progress, except that the “news network” continues to employ equally racist, Trump-Deranged, abrasive, perpetually furious Symone Sanders, allows the dumbest man on television, Michael Steele, to bloviate daily, still pays Rachel Maddow to sneer, still inflicts Al Sharpton on the culture, and seemed to have no problem with Morning Joe Scarborough lying outright to its audience about how mentally sharp Joe Biden was, because he faced no consequences for it whatsoever. This is not a news network. It is pure propaganda, spin and lies all day long. It makes Fox News look like epitome of neutrality by comparison.
3. I finally watched “Bombshell,” the 2019 docudrama about the sexual harassment scandal that toppled the reign of Roger Ailes at Fox News. Apparently it is mostly accurate, which makes one wonder: how did Megyn Kelly end up as so completely supportive of Donald Trump as she is now when she was apparently so contemptuous of his attitudes toward women in 2016? The movie cheats quite a bit: all of the female characters are gorgeous and sympathetic; all of the male characters are disgusting. Still, it’s an ethics movie, and a useful case study on how an unethical culture is created, thrives, and falls.
4. I see that the first test of the Associated Press’s absurd law suit insisting that it has some kind of right to attend White House press briefings when there is only room for a limited number of outlets failed. US District Judge Trevor McFadden turned down the entreaty from AP to temporarily lift the ban Trump imposed earlier this month. McFadden gave a number of reasons for why he decided to deny the request for emergency relief at this stage in the litigation, including that he wasn’t persuaded that the AP was facing “irreparable harm” as a result of the ban. The judge said the news organization “can get access to the same information” from the pool notes that are given to all members of the White House Correspondents’ Association even if it’s barred from being at the events where that news is made.
Well of course. As “Victory Girls” sagely pointed out last week, “They can continue to make up the fake news from afar.”
Ethics Alarms 
RE1 I suggest that TOS should be limited to 5 bullet points on how they can take advantage of you.
AP must have a high opinion of themselves.
4. To paraphrase a talking point from the Democratic Party playbook from a few years ago, “No one has the right to attend White House briefings.”
There was a very good episode of Black Mirror where the protagonist finds her entire life story being broadcast as a reality TV show, using her real name and turning her into a reprehensible character which results in her drawing scorn from strangers, being fired, etc. When she attempts to sue the network, she learns that the user agreement that she signed (a similar 100 page digital document that she ignored and clicked “agree”) granted the network permission to use all information that she posted in any way that it chose.
The actress who portrays her on the reality series tries to quit and is informed that the agreement she signed gave the network the right to use her image in perpetuity, seen if she quits the show.
The entire episode was humorous and terrifying.
Saw it. Good reference. And this is why I watch as much stuff as I do. There are ethics lessons in Sci-fi (of course) and horror.
Makes me wonder if you can drop Terms and Conditions into ChatGPT or Grok and get a list of egregious requirements. But…then, what choice do you have? Can you strike out any part of the agreement that you don’t agree to? Send a revised agreement? Maybe video record yourself telling your 2 year old not to click that button while they defiantly click that button?