Lara WittEditor-in-Chief

Nov 13, 2024 | prismreports.org | Maya Schenwar |Lara Witt |Lara WittEditor-in-Chief

This article was co-published with Truthout. In journalism circles, we often speak about our work in abstract ideals. Transparency. Accountability. Democracy. Truth. All of these ideals are urgently important. And yet, in this precipitous moment, as we watch an overt fascist prepare to ascend back into the White House, abstract concepts are not at the top of our minds as journalism leaders.

Nov 7, 2024 | prismreports.org | Lara Witt |Lara WittEditor-in-Chief

The U.S. voted this week to usher in a second presidency for Donald Trump, who won by a significant margin despite polls and mainstream media pundits saying the election would be “too close to call.” Fascism is here because neoliberalism and capitalism opened the door to it. When President Joe Biden was elected four years ago, it was in response to an overtly fascist and racist Trump. We had a raging pandemic and anti-science disinformation fomenting death and despair.

Oct 7, 2024 | prismreports.org | Lara Witt |Negin Owliaei |Lara WittEditor-in-Chief

A bill currently making its way through Congress could kill independent media outlets like ours. HR 9495 is a bipartisan piece of legislation, ostensibly about allowing U.S. nationals wrongfully detained abroad to postpone their tax deadlines. The bill sounds relatively innocuous.

Aug 28, 2024 | prismreports.org | Lara Witt |Maya Schenwar |Lara WittEditor-in-Chief

Last November, 25 media-makers from independent U.S.-based organizations came together around a long table at Chicago’s Haymarket House to talk about the future of media and how we might build it together. Although our organizations differed in focus, audience, size, perspective, and origin, we all believed in the power of media to inform and fuel social movements that transform the world.

May 29, 2024 | prismreports.org | Lara Witt |Julian Roberts-Grmela |Lara WittEditor-in-Chief

In Zoom class, Larissa Phillips drilled her student, who is in his sixties, on the digraph “ck.” In previous lessons, they’d already gone through several common digraphs—two-letter combinations that form one sound—like “sh,” “th,” and “ch.”After explaining the concept, Phillips instructed the student to rehearse decoding different sounds for vowels and consonants before blending sounds, reviewing words, and then finally reading phrases.