In the wake of Russia’s independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, being shut down under pressure this week, and the Trump administration’s threats to jail American journalists who refuse to reveal their sources, political commentator Heather Delaney Reese drew this comparison to past and present authoritarians’ methods of gaining control of the information that is made available to their citizens:

“They go after the press with slow, deliberate efforts to make reporting the truth dangerous. In Turkey, Erdogan responded to critical coverage by seizing media outlets and imprisoning journalists, turning the country into one of the world’s leading jailers of reporters. In Russia, Putin built a state propaganda system while independent reporters were jailed, poisoned, and killed. And in Nazi Germany, Hitler went after the free press almost immediately after coming to power in 1933. His government shut down opposition newspapers, took control of publishing companies, and put Joseph Goebbels in charge of a propaganda ministry that dictated what journalists could and could not report. Reporters who refused to follow the government’s orders could lose their jobs, be imprisoned, or even be sent to concentration camps. Within months, Hitler had effectively destroyed Germany’s independent press. The exact steps and methods vary from country to country and from one evil leader to another, but the goal stays the same. Discredit the people delivering the news, make it dangerous for them to tell the truth, and eventually control what the public is allowed to know.”

– Heather Delaney Reese, “It’s a Lovely Life,” November 9, 2026.

My first thought upon reading Reese’s entire article on Facebook was this recollection from a year ago:

And then I saw this recent comparison making the rounds on social media:

And my blood ran cold.

The results of last week’s elections were exciting and enormously encouraging. But the new Congress has its work cut out for it, with the Trump administration in place for another two years. And there is no time to waste. This is not some dim, distant, future threat; it is here . . . now . . . today.

And it is up to us — We the People — to stop it. Hitler is dead. Goebbels is dead. Long live Democracy!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/10/26