Chris Amico
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chrisamico.bsky.social
Chris Amico
@chrisamico.bsky.social
Journalist + Developer, working on @documentcloud.org + @muckrock.com. You might know me from: Homicide Watch, USA TODAY Network, Frontline, WBUR, NPR, PBS NewsHour.

https://chrisamico.com/
Reposted by Chris Amico
Applications are now open for Today’s News for Tomorrow, a free program that provides newsrooms free training to ensure the long-term preservation and access of their digital assets.

Applications now open! Learn more at: https://www.ire.org/call-for-applications-todays-news-for-tomorrow/
November 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
Now that Greg Bovino is wearing his court-ordered body cam, he's wide open to FOIA requests, so have fun with that.
November 10, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
I enjoyed Alien: Earth, but the cyberpunk megacorporations and their supervillain bosses were boring. I have more fun imagining what the Alien story would be like if Weyland-Yutani were a realistic corporation, screwed up in all the normal corporate ways. williammoss.substack.com/p/in-space-n...
November 10, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Sometimes the timeline works perfectly:
November 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...
Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo
Fifteen-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux has become an internet sensation after an Associated Press photo captured him outside the Louvre on the day of a crown jewels heist.
apnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
Thread of the Day 🥇
Someone asked if I have been shadowbanned on here, because they haven’t seen my posts for weeks.

I am not shadowbanned, I’ve just been quiet on socials and substack.

I’ve focusing on teaching and navigating the fallout from my firing from @washingtonpost.com — it’s been psychologically hard.
November 8, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
hoping this upcoming star wars: starfighter movie is just top gun but star wars
ironically what makes star wars stuff best is when it is 'something else, but also star wars'

e.g. Andor, a British political thriller but also Star Wars
the Mandalorian, an episode-of-the-week Western but also Star Wars (when it was good)
November 8, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
"Cornell is the fourth institution to achieve an agreement with the Trump administration to restore federal money, following Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University." www.chronicle.com/article/corn...
Cornell Will Pay $60 Million and Provide Admissions Data in Deal to Restore Federal Funding
The university, which had seen hundreds of millions of dollars frozen, said the deal “will enable us to return to our teaching and research in restored partnership with federal agencies.”
www.chronicle.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
'Sandwich Guy' jury note and verdict form: www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
November 7, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
DHS confirmed it has stopped automatically storing officials' text messages.

Instead, officials are supposed to take a screenshot, send that to their work email, download it onto their work computer and run a text-recognition program on it. Every time.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
Hypothesis: The age of the jQuery version in use on a government website can be used as a proxy measure for how abandoned that the site is, in terms of maintenance.
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
A man collapsed in the Oval Office yesterday. The internet got the story wrong.

My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.
A man collapsed in the Oval Office. The internet got the story wrong.
A case study in how bad information can spread — and how hard it is to correct it.
dandiamond.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond
November 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Reposted by Chris Amico
Firmly believe one of the ways to improve trust in journalism among young people is to support them in learning to research, write, and report themselves. Even if they never pursue it as a job, it helps to understand the process, and encourages them to engage with their local journalism outlets.
About half of the teens surveyed believe that journalists frequently “make up details, such as quotes” and “pay for sources.” More than a third of teens believe journalists could improve by simply “Telling the truth,” “Fact checking,” and “Not lying.” buff.ly/7vgO0ci
“Biased,” “Boring,” “Chaotic,” and “Bad”: A majority of teens hold negative views of news media, report finds
About half of the teens surveyed believe that journalists frequently “make up details, such as quotes” and “pay for sources.”
www.niemanlab.org
November 6, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
If nothing else, the Trump administration is doing wonders to highlight the importance of jury trials.
November 6, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
I'm one of the four fired employees. I was a writer & producer at Bon Appétit for nearly five years, during which I helped organize our union and sat on our bargaining committee.

I am, to my knowledge, the only trans woman in our union and the only trans woman on editorial who doesn't work at Them
New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.
November 6, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
BREAKING: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EATS A LOSS IN 'SANDWICH GUY' CASE AS JURORS FIND DEFENDANT NOT GUILTY www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
Jury acquits D.C. 'sandwich guy' charged with chucking a sub at a federal agent
Sean Dunn faced single misdemeanor offense after federal grand jurors refused to indict him on the felony charge sought by prosecutors.
www.nbcnews.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:27 PM
This is the world we live in…
“This case, ladies and gentleman of the jury, is about a sandwich.”

Closing arguments from the defense in the DC sandwich guy case are now underway.
November 6, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
Greetings from the Dirksen federal courthouse, where U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis has just taken the bench to rule on federal agents actions' during a series of increasingly aggressive raids across Chicago and the suburbs.
Background, for @wttw.bsky.social from @bymattmasterson.bsky.social
Judge Set to Rule Thursday in Case Centering on Federal Immigration Agents’ Use of Force: ‘I Could See Inside the Barrel’
Protesters, clergy members and others who say they’ve been directly impacted by a series of increasingly aggressive raids across Chicago and the suburbs will testify before a federal judge weighing wh...
news.wttw.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
This'll cost about $500 bucks per month, and we've already raised enough to cover five months. Wanna pitch in to keep my neighbors alive and thriving? www.catskillsagrarianalliance.org/donate
October 31, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
Join the MuckRock team next week for Building with MuckRock, where we’ll feature a demo of PluckyWire.

Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Building with MuckRock
us02web.zoom.us
November 5, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
What D.C. parents can keep in mind when talking to their kids about the current moment:
• Be honest and vulnerable
• Let kids lead
• Help them understand the big picture
• Build community
• Look for the helpers

More tips from the local experts contributor Foram Mehta interviewed:
How to explain ICE and the national guard in DC to kids
We asked experts how to discuss ICE, the national guard deployment, and the current political moment with kids.
51st.news
November 5, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Chris Amico
"Many of them, he said, held legal status, but were unable to immediately produce their documentation to the agents.

“Some people left their property, their work permits in their lockers here,” [their boss] said. “I could bring it to them and get them released. But I don’t know where they are.”"
With all the excitement about the election I don’t want this story to get lost. This morning 8 car wash workers in Boston were kidnapped by federal agents in the largest workplace raid in the area in recent memory.

The details are horrifying.

🧵
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/04/m...
Immigration agents raid Allston car wash and detain several workers - The Boston Globe
Many of them held legal status but were unable to immediately produce their documentation to the agents, according to their manager.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:39 PM