Will

My name is Marisa Kabas, and I'm an independent journalist who publishes The Handbasket. I'm reaching out about a matter that involves your team and that continues to trouble me. In June of last year, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and I filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DC Metropolitan Police Department to compel them to release body camera footage from the March 17, 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace. What followed was months of back and forth with their lawyers, arguing why it was in the public interest to release the un-redacted footage in its entirety. Though tiny segments were handed over, that wasn't enough: We wanted all of it.  On February 18, 2026, a DC judge ruled in our favor, and your reporter Mark Segraves sent a kind note of congratulations that day. Then on Monday, March 2nd, the footage was handed over to me and excitedly announced I'd received it and would be reviewing it in the coming days and sharing what I learned. When Segraves emailed me this past Thursday asking for my phone number, I didn't think much of it. But when he called me just before 2pm on Friday to let me know NBC4 Washington would be airing a segment at 5pm, I grew concerned.  Segraves said he'd obtained some of the footage via a FOIA request that week after he heard the footage had been released to me. He said he'd credit the work of RCFP and me, but it was little comfort. I asked if he'd known the day before when he emailed me for my number, why didn't he tell me then? He didn't have a good answer for that. He acknowledged all the hard work I'd done getting this footage released. I asked him if he could hold the story until Monday, to which he replied that he's "not just a blogger" (implying that that's all I am, presumably) and that he'd have to check with his editor. I said fine. Nearly an hour later he called back to say his editor refused to hold the story, but that they were happy to interview me via Zoom to add to the package, and I said I would.

What followed was two hours of furiously writing and posting clips of the footage to Youtube so I could get something published before the 5pm broadcast, and in the midst of that, recording a quick Zoom interview with a person who was about to take credit for my work. At 4:59pm ET, The Handbasket published a piece titled "Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid." Then I tuned into NBC4 Washington via your website to catch the broadcast, and my instinct to rush to get something out first was proven right.  "It's a story you're seeing first on News4," your newscast began. "For the first time we're getting an inside look at what happened the day the Trump administration took over the US Institute of Peace. News4 obtained more than four hours of police body camera video from that day." What followed was more than six minutes of clips and commentary from Segraves, but it's not until six minutes and 21 seconds into the piece that he mentions my name (mispronounced though he asked for the correct pronunciation on Zoom), "The Handbasket blog," and the RCFP's foundational role in bringing this footage to light. I was angry, but didn't feel there was much I could do. Then I saw the version NBC4 posted to Instagram and TikTok—the video itself made ZERO mention of the RCFP or my work, only briefly acknowledging it in the written caption on Instagram, and not even bothering to do that on TikTok. An average viewer with no background on the case is lead to believe that this footage was released because of your efforts. When I saw that, I decided I couldn't let this go. It's difficult to explain what it's like to spend nearly a year working on a story only to have another reporter and outlet surreptitiously take credit for it; months of work and personal risk only to have another reporter lying in wait to swoop in. What NBC4 did was immoral, unethical, and to be frank, just truly sucked.

I just sent this email to the news director at NBC4 Washington about the unprofessional and disrespectful way they handled publishing the body camera footage of the DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace that was obtained via my FOIA lawsuit:

Green Party say 'Hannah Spencer won't be silenced' after Manchester violence Hannah Spencer, Gorton and Denton's newly-elected MP, was ushered into a police car amid the unfolding chaos

The reason the middle-class media has not reported Hannah Spencer being attacked by right-wing transphobes is that it needs to preserve the nice, coffeee-round-the-kitchen-table, middle-class view of transphobia, not the thuggish fascist reality.

loss function

f(| |) = | _

a close up of a woman wearing a black coat and earrings ALT: a close up of a woman wearing a black coat and earrings

And then "im the bad guy" for creating "more work" like "write down what you did and when you did it".

Its Always GIF ALT: Its Always GIF

I've been telling them they need to *write down what they're doing* for the past 18 months and they *still arent* and its the most basic premise of science and they just arent doing it.

Got a Dr appointment in 20 minutes and a work email just pissed me off so royally my blood pressure is not gonna be pretty.

If an official commits an impeachable offense and nobody acts to impeach, it is no longer an impeachable offense.

People who oppose impeachment as “pointless” because it seems unlikely to result in removal do not understand this very simple point and seem unwilling to even try to understand it.

I'm watching these sad videos on Instagram which resonate. So it shows me more and more and more of them. And it feels worse and worse and worse. And it becomes overwhelming.

And then you gotta remind yourself that an evil billionaire is trying to manipulate your emotions and you gotta stop

It is incredible how powerful the social media algorithm is at sending you spiraling.

Like, if you've not experienced it it's hard to believe just how... Self indulgent and harmful the algorithm can be at sending you.

This is criminally assinine

NEVER use Jimmy Carter’s name in the same sentence as this evil, sadistic man. There is NO comparison to be made no matter what external political factors are in play.

Ban vapes and ban vape shops

Who is this post for. Who is on bluesky who doesn't already know that Elon musk is a white supremacist? Who on bluesky wants to see the content of a nazi from a site they left?

I also don't understand how like a trillion dollars in funding isn't enough anyway.

How will this affect the Riyadh comedy scene

*and he doesnt care*

Thanks!

Thanks

I wish you could match with folks on tinder just to give them respectful constructive criticism about their profile

That 'both sides' basic science, basic facts, basic empirical truths, objective realities.

We live in a 'post-truth' world because journalism is dead.

The journalism that allowed him to beat Hillary, that allowed him to beat Kamala, that allowed him to pretend Project 2025 was not his agenda... Its been dead a long time.

He's proposing or engaging or provoking wars on N+1 fronts at this point - Greenland, Canada. Central and South America. Gaza. Iran. Cuba. (Ukraine is probably the one he's most likely to disengage from). Plus the inevitable Taiwan conflict when China realises they can do it.

March. It's gonna be warm and sunny.

OK for now Hawaii is on pause, and instead I've booked a trip to New Orleans.

Recommendations please!

Yup. In my head $10k = my antartica penguin trip.
Hawaii will probably cost ~5-6k when I finally figure out what to do.

thank goodness!

Once again looking at what a vacation to Hawaii might cost and once again having a heart attack.

(Obviously these are the most expensive options Delta is offering, but still...)

The leftover bacon fat in the pan has solidified and it is actually quite horrifying.

The quoted text is astonishing

The March 15, 2025, killing of Ruben Ray Martinez drew almost no public attention.

But Martinez is now the first known American citizen shot to death by federal immigration agents during President Trump’s second term. https://wapo.st/4lbpGYC