Sept. 22, 2025
Our past three editions
Sept. 15, 2025 Traumatic news • Heat waves • Emmys
Sept. 8, 2025 Cell phones in school • AI • “The Summer I Turned Pretty”
May 5, 2025 Hazing • Federal funding • Conspiracy theories
THE LEAD
Federal threats to broadcast licences raise First Amendment questions
Discuss First Amendment protections, FCC rules
President Donald Trump said on Thursday broadcast networks that air negative coverage or commentary of him could risk losing their licenses, The New York Times reported. “I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily,” Trump said. “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
The remarks came the day after ABC “indefinitely” took Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show off air following pressure from Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, regarding Kimmel’s comments on Charlie Kirk’s shooting.
On Fox News Thursday, Carr said Kimmel’s suspension is not “the last shoe to drop,” CNN reported.
Democratic lawmakers have called removing Kimmel from air a threat to free speech, CNN reported.
What you can do—
Coming the day after Constitution Day, the news surrounding Kimmel’s show has prompted a widespread discussion of media law and First Amendment rights. Take this moment to discuss how the Federal Communications Commission’s abilities intersect with the First Amendment and how that applies in this case.
There are plenty of media analysis pieces being published every day, like this one in The Washington Post from the chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, that can aid in this discussion.
Noteworthy
Federal Trade Commission sues Ticketmaster over illegal resale claims
Gather community experiences with ticket sales
Seven states and the Federal Trade Commission sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment claiming the company allowing brokers to resell tickets at higher prices was illegal. The lawsuit accused Ticketmaster of deceptively advertising lower prices than were available and falsely claiming it limited the number of tickets someone could purchase, The New York Times reported.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California.
What you can do—
Though the outcome of the case isn’t clear yet, it is a story to watch. There are likely students or staff in your community who have dealt with Ticketmaster ticket woes over the last few years — has it changed how they try to get tickets? Has anyone paid a reseller for a ticket?
If there is a big concert coming to a venue near you, you could do a story on how they are handling ticket sales and add the context of this lawsuit.
What’s viral
WNBA playoffs underway, semis starting
Poll school for predictions, favorite teams
The WNBA playoffs kicked off Sept. 14, and have kept fans entertained since. As of Sept. 21, the tournament is in the semifinals stage with just four teams remaining. (At the time of publication, the Minnesota Lynx have secured their spot in the semis, while the other quarterfinal games are still playing out.)
The semifinals use a best-of-five format, and the latest that round can end is Sept. 30.
What you can do—
Regardless of if your state has a WNBA team, check in with people in your school about their playoff predications, favorite teams and players to watch. This season is the most watched season in history, with games averaging 1.3 million viewers, a 6% increase from last season, according to ESPN. Has the fan power spread to your school? The playoffs could also be a news hook for a story about women’s representation in sports at a local or national level. What is the fan difference between girls and boys sports at your school?
100 years of Quill & Scroll
Society founded April 1926 in Iowa
Quill and Scroll was founded April 10, 1926, at the University of Iowa. The group that came together at the start, including renowned pollster George H. Gallup, set out to create a journalistic society with the purpose of encouraging and recognizing individual student achievement in journalism and scholastic publication.
On April 10, 1926, 19 schools across Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming were granted charters. In the Society’s first six months it grew to 55 chapters with more than 300 members.
IT’S AN HONOR
It’s always membership season
Don’t forget you can nominate members year round
Do you have a senior who just met the GPA requirement or a student who now wants to join Quill and Scroll? Want to avoid the spring rush? Nominate students for membership order pins, cords and other Quill and Scroll materials and memorabilia.
We haven’t changed the ordering process from last year. For those wanting to ditch the paper version, you just need to select the form based on how you would like to pay. We have one version for credit card and another version for check or purchase order. (We’ve added buttons for ease of finding these.) As usual, credit card payments are charged $4.49 per order for processing.
Submit your YEC entries today
Only one week until contest closes, submit today
The 2025 Yearbook Excellence Contest is open for entries. The cost for each entry in all 39 categories is $8, and schools will be divided by size — Class A for 1,000 or more students, and Class B for 999 or fewer students.
Entry deadline is Oct. 1, and here is a link to complete descriptions of those 39 categories and how to pay for the entries. Please note, we’ve added six new categories — including three for beginning students and three for middle schoolers.
Judges will award first, second and third places in each category for each class, and they’ll award honorable mentions so that between 10 and 15 percent of all entries are recognized in every category. All students named as award recipients will be eligible to apply for Quill and Scroll student scholarships in May of their senior year.
Quill and Scroll administrators will then tally points (5 for first place, 4 for second, 3 for third and 1 for HM) to determine a Blue and Gold Award winner for each class. Last year’s overall winners were Wando High School of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and Shawnee Mission South High School of Overland Park, Kansas (Class A) and Christ Presbyterian Academy of Nashville, Tennessee (Class B) have won the overall Blue and Gold Awards in the 2024 Quill and Scroll Yearbook Excellence Contest.
Here’s a complete list of last year’s winners
Take advantage of our advisers-only resource area
Quill and Scroll has expanded its advisers-only area, which includes bellringers and lesson plans for advisers who have initiated members within the past school year. We will be highlighting a helpful resource in each Weekly and Month Scroll.
Advisers, if you inducted members in the 2024-25 or the 2025-26 school year, check your email (and your spam!) for a message from [email protected]. That email should contain your login information. Please be sure to accept cookies when you log in! If you have trouble, you can contact us at [email protected]. If you have inducted members this school year, we update access every few weeks, so keep an eye on your email.
We will be highlighting specific content from the advisers-only area in each Monthly Scroll, so keep reading for some ideas.
Advisers-only resource area highlight
In this lesson, students will examine how to use the comments from the News Media Evaluation Service to help set student-media level SMART goals.
National High School Journalism Convention travels to Nashville
This fall the nation’s largest gathering of high school journalists, advisers and journalism teachers will be Nov. 13-16 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.
The JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention offers hundreds of instructional sessions, keynote speakers from national newsmakers, dozens of media critiques, JEA’s popular on-site media contests and the announcement of the NSPA Broadcast and Newspaper/Newsmagazine and Specialty Magazine Pacemakers. The winners in the NSPA Individual Awards will also be announced.
NSPA also offers a convention Best of Show competition that celebrates current student media from the current school year. The deadline for submitting Individual Achievement entries is Oct. 29. Staff Achievement entries are due at the convention on Nov. 14.
Registration is open now. The early bird discount ends Oct. 3 and online registration will close Oct. 24.
School of the New York Times Summer Academy opportunity
We know it’s early, but for those looking for a 2026 journalism learning opportunity, it’s not too early to begin planning. The School of the New York Times Summer Academy is one of the nation’s most competitive journalism programs — and Quill and Scroll members get exclusive early access.
Summer Academy is open to high school students (grades 10-12 and Graduating Seniors based on the grade the student is entering in the Fall 2026 school year). Students must be 15-years old by the first day of their session. Program graduates have been recruited from some of the top journalism schools in the nation.
All students applying to Summer Academy for the first time are required to complete an online application. Returning students do not need to reapply. As a member school, Quill and Scroll chapter members will have access to pre-registration, which is now open. Last year this program received more than 14,000 applications for 1,700 seats. By going through pre-registration, your chance of being an attendee increases.
Also, don’t forget that students from schools with a Quill and Scroll Charter can receive $500 off enrollment in the Summer Academy in addition to early enrollment incentives.
Additionally, the winning entries from our News Writer of the Year (Category 16 in Quill and Scroll’s Writing, Visual, Multimedia Contest) are eligible to compete for a School of the New York Times scholarship to its Summer Academy. This scholarship (valued at $7,500) includes room and board but not transportation to New York City. Student entries will be evaluated by faculty from the New York Times.
The School of the New York Times will host a Virtual Admissions Information Session later this fall.
The round 1 deadline will be in mid December. The application in mid-September.
Plan ahead
We will be out of the office during the weeks of Oct. 13-17 and Nov. 10-14. We will not be able to send or process orders during this time — including overnight orders. Please remember we need at least three weeks from the time we receive your purchase order or payment to the time you need the materials. We will process all orders as they are received.
Just a thought
While learning about the First Amendment, I remember asking a lot of “but what about” questions.
A few, such as a bomb threat and causing a disruption that could injure others, were obvious. I instead zeroed in on the topics that would be more offensive to my very openly gay teacher. “But what about people who say mean things about others, such as LGBTQ+ rights?”
What he said next has stuck with me. He told me he believed in their right to say it, even though he vehemently disagreed with their speech. If we censor that comment, then the other side could be quashed as well.
In essence, the First Amendment applies to commentary we disagree with as well our own. We can’t just pick and choose.
He was right then, and he should still be right now. The First Amendment is under attack. During the past week, we’ve seen people removed from their positions because of social media posts written on their own time on their personal accounts.
It’s time to pull out the Journalism Matters Sweatshirt and 45 Words T-shirt. We need to push for more media literacy and work on transparency in student media.
If you have a media literacy lesson plan to share or a resource for teaching, please add it to this form. We will compile the list on our site for all to access.
— Lori Keekley
