Pete Buttigieg, not the first victim of an internet smear and certainly not the last. Scott Olson / Getty Images For decades upon decades in recent American history, if you wanted to mislead a vast audience with a false smear against someone, you needed to get that smear past certain mass media “gatekeepers”—people like radio […]
2020
Posted inPolitics
The Trump-Adjusted Supreme Court Appears Ready to Uphold 2020 Citizenship Question
Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s additions to the US Supreme Court. Getty Images It hasn’t happened since the 1950s, yet unsurprisingly the Trump administration wants to bring back a question for the 2020 US census asking whether respondents are US citizens. Three federal judges have already blocked the plan, saying the Trump administration’s […]
Posted inPolitics
What Buttigieg Gets Right About Bernie Supporters and Trump Supporters
Mayor Pete, whisperer to the “blow up the system” constituency. Scott Eisen / Getty Images The New York Post has a headline today that suggests there’s something shocking about Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg noting similarities between Bernie Sanders voters and Trump voters. Drudge then takes it a half step further, telling his massive audience […]
Posted inPolitics
Who Is This John Hickenlooper Guy?
Democrat John Hickenlooper used to be the governor of Colorado. Now he wants to be president. Michael Ciaglo / Getty Images There are a lot of Democrats running for president—16 of them at present. But on most days, the focus is on just a few people: Bernie, Beto, Kamala, Elizabeth, and maybe one or two […]
Posted inPolitics
Beto Brings Warmth, But He Does Not Spark Joy
This is not the B.O. you were looking for.
Posted inMedia
Elizabeth Warren, Facebook, and “Outsourced Content Moderation”
Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren. Drew Angerer / Getty Images By now you’ve heard the story: Elizabeth Warren wants to break up Big Tech, so her presidential campaign bought ads on Facebook talking about how Facebook is too powerful and should be cut down to size. Then Facebook blocked Warren’s ads, making Warren’s point for her. […]
Posted inMedia
Loud Calls for a New Political Journalism Before the 2020 Campaign Begins
The way elite media covers politics is broken, critics say. They have some ideas for fixes.