Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm me and Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the strategy behind Trump's war on the so-called legacy media,

which has not succumbed to be his propaganda,

cheer squad like Fox News and company,

as the plutocrats behind the wannabe dear leader

moved to overturn the Supreme Court landmark decision,

New York Times v Sullivan,

while weaponizing libel laws.

Joining us is David Enrich, the Business Investigations editor at the New York Times, and

the bestselling author of Dark Towers and Servants of the Dam.

The winner of numerous journalism awards, he previously was an editor and reporter at the

Wall Street Journal, and his

latest book, Just Out is Murder the Truth, Fear the First Amendment, and a secret campaign to

protect the powerful. Then we get an assessment of how Senate Democrats might extricate themselves

from the government shutdown trap set by House Republicans, which has the White House

crowing at Schumer and his caucus that, quote, they're totally screwed.

Joining us is James Galbraith, Professor and Chair in Government and Business Relations

at the Linda Me Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

He was executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress,

and before that an economist for the House Banking Committee,

and is the author of a number of books, including Inequality,

...