Susan Moeller

Professor of Media & Intl Affairs

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

I’m honored to be @Merrill among so many world-class reporters, scholars & activists - there has never been a time when #FreePress & #medialiteracy have been needed more #Ukraine #BlackLivesMatter #LGBTQIAforall

[Merrill College @ Maryland @merrillcollege]

This #facultyfriday, we're featuring Susan Moeller (@sdmoeller), our professor of media and international affairs. Moeller teaches a media literacy class at Merrill and explains why that skill set is more important than ever. #fearlessjournalism

WATCH: https://t.co/E366tcOyTD

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

@PhilipObaji Do a reverse image search — credit needed. This photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times appeared in the NYT in 2016: https://t.co/l3vwkTG1CM

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

Where is that shining city today? The open doors? Winthrop's "Model of Christian Charity?" The words of Matthew 25:40: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

Click & read in full. Then think

In 1630, Puritan John Winthrop wrote his sermon "A Model of Christian Charity" onboard the ship Arbella. He quoted Jesus's warning "a city on a hill cannot be hid." (Mt 5:14) Reagan's Farewell Address also spoke of "the shining city" of America.

[Jennifer Griffin @JenGriffinFNC]

Atul Gawande confirms 50 top USAID officials removed. DOGE teams forced their way into USAID offices this weekend, he confirmed to Fox News.

“This is a gift to our enemies and competitors. This pause is not a pause. It’s the destruction of the agency.”

“Two weeks ago I was combatting diseases. We had 21 serious outbreaks at the time worldwide. Three are serious now: an Ebola outbreak in the capital of Uganda. Bird flu has broken out in 49 countries. Our efforts to contain them have all been shut down.”

In terms of HIV treatment and prevention: USAID was funding the treatment for 20 million people with HIV worldwide including 6.5 million orphans and their care givers.

“We were on the verge of ending HIV, TB, and malaria. That has all ended with this pause. It is a gift to our enemies and competitors,” Gawande said.

“We were funding demining operations in Vietnam to allow farmers to get back to their fields so people can farm.”

“The insanity and cruelty to break this independent agency…they (DOGE teams) took down the USAID Memorial Wall which honored employees killed in the line of duty overseas…Lebanon in the 1980s, USAID personnel killed during the bombing of the U.S. Embassy. Their Memorial torn down.
These attacks are spurious and dangerous.”

Those who have worked for USAID now and in the past: “They are being treated with enormous disrespect and fear. The top 3 layers of experienced employees have been removed. All contract employees have been or will be terminated…2/3 of the malaria staff, child immunization experts. This kills our capacity. It’s insane to break this. It’s cruel and it does our country enormous damage.”

“If you want to end foreign aid, let’s have that discussion, but this is a Congressionally statutorily created agency that President Kennedy signed into law. What is happening now is an unlawful shutdown and purge,” Gawande told Fox News.

“800 people work for USAID’s Global Health, 400 have been terminated. It’s not legal.”
“It’s an unlawful shutdown, purge and dismantling of the agency.”

“John Voorhees, our experienced security expert, was put on administrative leave for not letting unauthorized people from DOGE into classified systems. He was just following the law.”

“They have turned into a shell overnight an organization that reaches 100s of millions of people around the world. Our health programs added 6 extra years of life to children by eradicating diseases. That is all being decimated with spurious charges of corruption and mismanagement. It is a playbook coming to an agency near you.”

“Every administration does a top to bottom review of programs and whether they are working or wasteful. There is no need to shut down the agency to do a review. It’s like pausing a hospital or stopping a plane mid flight. You are pausing funding to hospitals where 100 malnourished children are being given life saving support. Teams have been hollowed out. You can’t just switch that back on. There will be large scale layoffs at U.S. companies that we have worked with for years to provide these services overseas. It is very dangerous and cruel.”

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

...that was "God-blessed & teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce & creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors & the doors were open to anyone with the will & the heart to get here."

[Jennifer Griffin @JenGriffinFNC]

Atul Gawande confirms 50 top USAID officials removed. DOGE teams forced their way into USAID offices this weekend, he confirmed to Fox News.

“This is a gift to our enemies and competitors. This pause is not a pause. It’s the destruction of the agency.”

“Two weeks ago I was combatting diseases. We had 21 serious outbreaks at the time worldwide. Three are serious now: an Ebola outbreak in the capital of Uganda. Bird flu has broken out in 49 countries. Our efforts to contain them have all been shut down.”

In terms of HIV treatment and prevention: USAID was funding the treatment for 20 million people with HIV worldwide including 6.5 million orphans and their care givers.

“We were on the verge of ending HIV, TB, and malaria. That has all ended with this pause. It is a gift to our enemies and competitors,” Gawande said.

“We were funding demining operations in Vietnam to allow farmers to get back to their fields so people can farm.”

“The insanity and cruelty to break this independent agency…they (DOGE teams) took down the USAID Memorial Wall which honored employees killed in the line of duty overseas…Lebanon in the 1980s, USAID personnel killed during the bombing of the U.S. Embassy. Their Memorial torn down.
These attacks are spurious and dangerous.”

Those who have worked for USAID now and in the past: “They are being treated with enormous disrespect and fear. The top 3 layers of experienced employees have been removed. All contract employees have been or will be terminated…2/3 of the malaria staff, child immunization experts. This kills our capacity. It’s insane to break this. It’s cruel and it does our country enormous damage.”

“If you want to end foreign aid, let’s have that discussion, but this is a Congressionally statutorily created agency that President Kennedy signed into law. What is happening now is an unlawful shutdown and purge,” Gawande told Fox News.

“800 people work for USAID’s Global Health, 400 have been terminated. It’s not legal.”
“It’s an unlawful shutdown, purge and dismantling of the agency.”

“John Voorhees, our experienced security expert, was put on administrative leave for not letting unauthorized people from DOGE into classified systems. He was just following the law.”

“They have turned into a shell overnight an organization that reaches 100s of millions of people around the world. Our health programs added 6 extra years of life to children by eradicating diseases. That is all being decimated with spurious charges of corruption and mismanagement. It is a playbook coming to an agency near you.”

“Every administration does a top to bottom review of programs and whether they are working or wasteful. There is no need to shut down the agency to do a review. It’s like pausing a hospital or stopping a plane mid flight. You are pausing funding to hospitals where 100 malnourished children are being given life saving support. Teams have been hollowed out. You can’t just switch that back on. There will be large scale layoffs at U.S. companies that we have worked with for years to provide these services overseas. It is very dangerous and cruel.”

[David Folkenflik @davidfolkenflik]

NEWS: More than 200,000 subscribers have canceled their digital subscriptions to the Washington Post after the revelation that owner Jeff Bezos blocked an endorsement of VP Harris.
That's about 8 percent of WaPo's subscriber base - a staggering sum
MORE
https://t.co/nCJhJrmlq0

[Karen Attiah @KarenAttiah]

I didn’t sign up to be a journalist to be silent on what matters most.

I didn’t come here to be a coward. Some of us really, truly believe in speaking truth to power.

We were betrayed today.

[Houston Chronicle @HoustonChron]

We endorse Kamala Harris for President of the United States | Editorial | Opinion https://t.co/fXyT4IErqJ

[Brian Barrett @brbarrett]

This might cost me billions in government contracts but just to be clear, WIRED endorses Kamala Harris.

[Brianna Sacks @bri_sacks]

We won a Pulitzer for public service for our coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection

[The New Yorker @NewYorker]

The Vice-President has the values and political skills to build on the successes of the Biden Administration and to help end, once and for all, a poisonous era defined by Donald Trump. Our editors endorse Kamala Harris. https://t.co/cqhnfm3uKl

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

& BTW after my donation confirmation came up, so did the standards for posting: “When editing, aim to make a fair representation of the world…Cite reliable sources. All content must be verifiable.”

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

Thx Elon for reminding me to donate to the Wikimedia Foundation … I upped my annual amount to a higher monthly donation …

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Wikipedia is controlled by far-left activists.

People should stop donating to them.

[Justin T. Pickett @JustinTPickett]

Maybe the most powerful figure I’ve seen this year: the racial gap in tickets from speed cameras vs. officer stops.

https://t.co/LarBFyfeo4

[Yashar Ali 🐘 @yashar]

NEWS

The editor of the Los Angeles Times editorial page has resigned after the owner blocked the editorial board from moving forward with an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

@sewellchan reports

Full Story: https://t.co/OpBu4bw28g

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

Powerful ⁦@WSJ⁩ front page today. A year without ⁦@evangershkovich⁩ :“Authoritarians Threaten Journalists Around Globe” - chart of jailed journalists is chilling in a year of 83 elections

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

I've assigned this great @HuffPost article to my 100s of @MediaLiteracy students @UMD every semester — but it's been eviscerated: "This experience has been removed by the publisher." Please bring it back! https://t.co/81zcfHFxUr

[RSF @RSF_inter]

⚠️Today marks a staggering 1,000 days of arbitrary detention for Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai in #HongKong🇭🇰, where he shouldn't have spent a single day behind bars. It's time to #FreeJimmyLai without further delay - journalism is not a crime!

[Susan Moeller @sdmoeller]

We are so thrilled that Dean Lorente is going to lead us & the next generation of journalists into the future. This is a critical moment for US & global democracy. I can’t wait to work with you, Rafael!

[rafael lorente @DeanLorente]

I am humbled to be dean of a place with people who set the standard in journalism education. Journalism is going through rough times. @merrillcollege will continue to teach the next generation of diverse and innovative journalists who reinvent our field in support of democracy.