Dear Readers,
Bari here. Before I head into our story meeting, I want to pop into your inbox to thank all of you, once again, for subscribing to The Free Press and to give a quick summary of the impact our reporting has had over the past few days.
On Wednesday of last week, the House Oversight Committee summoned four former Twitter executives to answer questions about our Twitter Files reporting. As hearings continue, the public may finally get the answers it deserves about the way Twitter censored key information about subjects like Covid; about its covert cooperation with various government agencies, including the FBI; and broader questions about the power of this platform over public American life.
After politicians in Washington cited our reporting, we convened the reporters who broke open the Twitter Files story at the subscriber-only FP Forum we hosted. If you missed it, watch here:
The very next day, we published Jamie Reed’s alarming firsthand account of her experience working as a case manager at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Reed is the first whistleblower from inside an American pediatric gender clinic to speak out publicly. And the details she describes are, as she put it, “morally and medically appalling.”
Within hours of publication, the story generated a major reaction among law enforcement and policy makers.
Senator Josh Hawley’s office announced an investigation.
So did Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who says the Transgender Center was taking state taxpayer money unlawfully to fund their operations.
And Washington University responded to the piece in a statement: “We are alarmed by the allegations reported in the article published by The Free Press.”
Subscribers got to meet Jamie at a live FP Forum event last Thursday, where she spoke to our Emily Yoffe and shared more about her experience at the clinic, her decision to speak out, and her advice for parents and kids around the country. Watch that conversation here:
And just yesterday we announced one of our most ambitious projects to date: The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, a new audio documentary that examines some of the most contentious conflicts of our time through the life and career of the world’s most successful author. The show is hosted by our Megan Phelps-Roper and premieres next Tuesday, February 21.
Watch the trailer here (and share it, too):
And—I know it’s a lot! We’re doing a lot!—tonight Nellie is hosting an FP Forum with Jennifer Sey, one year after she wrote in our pages that she was leaving a top job at Levi Strauss & Co. in order to speak her mind.
Jennifer Sey, Elon Musk, Jamie Reed, and J.K. Rowling could have gone to any outlet in the world. Instead, they came to The Free Press, a publication that didn’t exist a year ago, a publication that exists now because of you—our subscribers. You are what’s enabling us to drive the political and cultural conversation in the U.S. and beyond.
So if you believe in the work we do, become a paid subscriber today.
For the next week, you can join our community with a 25% discount for your first year by clicking here. And thank you.
Amazing reporting. I’ve asked friends who claim to hate J.K. what she said that was controversial and they can never cite anything. People in the literary world have lost jobs and contracts by saying they stand with her. A reporter was asked to write an article of the top ten transphobic things Rowling said, and she came up with nothing. It is an online witch hunt.
The Free Press is the only free press in the United States. I am an avid reader and subscriber. No, I don’t always agree with you: but I always read The Free Press. It’s informative, important and independent. You represent what the press used to be: free. I was particularly moved by the discussion of the Washington University gender program. Thanks for being a free press.