When the Lights Turn Amber

Subtitle: How media pressure, political narratives, and uneven enforcement signal danger — and what history teaches us about when to act.

Communications around assassination = hackles up

When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I expected the normal process: law enforcement would give rolling updates, investigators would handle communications, politicians would offer condolences. That’s the pattern we’ve seen with JFK, MLK, RFK, even recent attacks - I had a whole conversation with ChatGPT, asking it to cite sources to make sure that my bias wasn’t out of context. Local police and federal agencies speak about suspects; presidents and governors speak about national grief.

But this time, it was different. The President and other electeds were the ones giving details about suspects, even when evidence wasn’t public or confirmed. That’s not normal. It’s a red flag. I am a trained journalist. It’s something I wanted to do but did not enjoy the experience in the newsroom when I was there and pivoted to other things. In fact, the day I decided not to do it anymore was the day that I pitched a story. Craigslist had just come out and I found it fascinating, how do they make money, how do we use it? My editor instantly responded that I couldn’t cover it because it would bring awareness to a competitor (the classifieds). When I finally saw that the news is selective and not pure, I was out.

And that is why I am always weary of the news, especially 24 hour cycle news and video. It’s just too off the cuff.

Jimmy Kimmell - Hackles up

And then Jimmy Kimmel made a partisan joke, offensive to some, but hardly unprecedented, and suddenly ABC pulled his show. The FCC chair even threatened to review broadcast licenses unless Disney “took action.” The FCC doesn’t have a standard that makes a late-night monologue grounds for license revocation - I looked for one. The threat itself did the job: corporate fear, affiliate revolt, advertiser pressure.

The part that got me was this: “It appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said.

Meanwhile, Fox’s Brian Kilmeade suggested “just kill” homeless people, later apologized, and… nothing. Now THAT feels like the sickest conduct possible, yet no FCC threats. No corporate suspension. That asymmetry tells the story: enforcement isn’t about standards, it’s about politics.

And moreover - the FCC, it turns out, as I did my research, really doesn’t have all that much power or clear standards. I was like, why would the FCC be like this and then I was like and then it clicked: Federal CC. . . so the guy speaking to this is a right wing individual and firmly supportive of the Trump administration.

My ancestors are screaming at me

And this is where my fear turns ancestral. I’m Jewish. My family survived because they sensed danger and left before it was too late. I’m also Irish, my family got out not because they wanted something better than they were getting. I have this deep mix of anxiety and ambition that my family gave me. I don’t want to overreact while my ambitions are currently being rewarded;I also don’t want to ignore the warning signs.

But how do you decide what the warning signs are? It looks like Trump and company are just able to say and do anything they want, right? Well, your favorite bullsh*t detector is here.

I asked ChatGPT to make a list for me of what transpired before bad things happened. And had it rank it on a traffic light scale.

• Courts — are rulings being obeyed, or openly defied?

  By all accounts they are being obeyed, even if they are not in favor. You get the headlines of what the administration has done, but not the outcome of it - most things are stopped, slowed down, or handled in legal courts. But the adminstration is respecting decisions.

  Green - no overt defying that I can find

• Media — are regulators threatening speech, or are broadcasters being shut down by law?
  Right now, it’s all threats and yelling and business decisions, not outright government takeover of media. It’s happened before and the country survived and it wasn’t time to jump ship (the biggest, closest example is McCarthyism - some celebrities and media orgs caved, some sued, and the pushback shut it down eventually)
  Amber - the government is certainly influencing this

• Violence — is political violence condemned by all sides, or excused and normalized?
  I’m talking about overt, not broad like “the left.” I’m talking calling for real, specific, detailed violence.

  Amber - Trump himself has said things, but it’s not widespread

• Civil liberties — are emergency powers creeping in, without rollback?

  Trump isn’t operating too far out of normal scope for Presidential use of emergencies. Here are the distinctions:
  Domestic use (rare) Border wall (2019 & 2025): Unusual because NEA emergencies are almost always foreign-policy–driven. Past presidents rarely used NEA for domestic spending fights. This set a precedent for using NEA to bypass Congress for appropriations.

  Economic/Trade focus Reciprocal tariffs (2025): First time NEA/IEEPA used explicitly for broad tariff-setting. Prior presidents leaned on trade statutes, not emergency powers, for tariffs.

  ICC sanctions EO 13928 (2020): First time the U.S. declared a national emergency against an international tribunal. Highly unusual.

  COVID A national pandemic declaration under NEA/Stafford Act existed, but Trump’s NEA use was narrower than his public health emergency powers (those come from HHS).
  Amber: It’s not that bad yet.

• Scapegoating — are minorities being blamed or dehumanized from official delcarations?

  There needs to be a specific call out: a lot of the concerns about some minorities (particluarly LGBTQ+ ones) are more about mental health concerns than the humans existing themselves.
  Amber: it’s not saying they’re sopecifically the cause of the country’s woes

If those shift from Green (normal) to Amber (watch carefully) to Red (time to act), that’s my cue. Two or more “reds,” and I know what my ancestors knew: get out before the window closes.

Right now, we’re in amber. Courts are still obeyed, even if rulings are slow-walked. Speech is pressured, but not criminalized. Violence is politicized, but not yet embraced outright. Civil liberties haven’t collapsed. Minorities aren’t officially scapegoated. But the pattern - political actors threatening media, uneven standards of consequence, narrative-shaping after violence - is familiar enough to take seriously.

McCarthyism, the Iraq War media purge, the UK’s Sinn Féin broadcast ban, Hong Kong’s National Security Law teach us that suppression often starts subtly. Fear, not law, is the weapon. People self-censor. Companies cave. Truth narrows.

I’m not saying America is 1930s Germany. I’m saying amber lights are flashing. And when amber turns to red, I don’t want to be caught saying, “we didn’t see it coming.”