i wrote about the nytimes latest opinion hire. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

one of my favorite things about writing laurel & darts is getting to talk to good journalists like @leahsottile.bsky.social & @ryanjhaas.bsky.social doing cool shit. you should read their work.

Noah Shachtman lands at the Times, somehow. Plus: A strong start for a Substack looking westward, and a Banner week in Baltimore. This week's Laurels and Darts by @banikarim.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

this is hilarious: “CBS News executives ascribe some portion of the viewership results to changes tied to the recent shift to Daylight Savings Time, according to a person familiar with the matter.” daylight savings time is a thing that notoriously only impacts one network apparently.

i’ve heard a lot of media execs say wild things but referring to pieces as “story-units” is next level. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b...

Afghan who fought for US forces dies in ICE custody as Trump on track for grim record www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

ProPublica’s Payoff, plus, why we should let Trump go to voicemail, and great work from Charleston’s Post and Courier. This week's Laurels and Darts by @banikarim.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

"It was a striking example of something that happens more than the public sees: rigorous investigative reporting often arms lawmakers with facts that help them hold officials to account." Love this point from @banikarim.bsky.social @columjournreview.bsky.social www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

there is grave concern for the journalists, dissidents and political prisoners in Iran who were already unjustly incarcerated before this war began and are now trapped as Iran is bombarded.

BREAKING: The Justice Department just posted online three FBI interviews that had been missing from the massive trove of Epstein files initially released. They're related to unsubstantiated sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump. DOC 1: www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

this man must have a humiliation kink. there is no other explanation for this.

EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints. One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…

this is so unserious

if you believe the primary goal of these bombs is to help the iranian people, you have not been paying attention. i hope it does lead to some relief for them. they desperately need it. but many more will die first. war is hell.

i’ll never understand this inability to match his foundation to the actual skin color on his face or hand? this is a skill i mastered in middle school.

is he handing out presidential medals like a game show host? they don’t usually do this right?

they somehow managed to make the hockey thing so weird and awkward.

what the actual fuck? this is actually deranged.

manly is not how i’d describe this.

three people have died in idaho after the state cut a medicaid mental health service. the governor’s response? “hindsight’s a great thing.” idahocapitalsun.com/2026/02/20/a...

The confusion around the Atlantic measles' piece could have been avoided with "acknowledging that it was imagined," @columjournreview.bsky.social's @banikarim.bsky.social writes. It'd have maintained its "power and effectiveness" -- and avoided a distraction from its "fundamental message."

Ann Curry reports from Sudan. Plus: Second-person scenarios, and AI mayhem. Read this week's Laurels and Darts by @banikarim.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

jmail.world is such a brilliant project & public service. i talked to @igel.bsky.social who came up w the idea last wk. everyone working on it is volunteering their time & they’ve had more than 450m views just since the latest epstein release a few wks ago. if you haven’t checked it out, you should.

In Laurels and Darts, a tool for parsing the Epstein dumps. Plus: Papers clash in the Deep South; a decades-long Florida waitlist. Read @banikarim.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

it’s so interesting that everyone who appears in the epstein files only ever met him that one documented time and knew he was a demon but never said anything.

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

My favorite dart this week goes to Axios for its bizarre and lazy AI-generated “New Yorker-style” review of Josh Shapiro’s book. Who is it for? Who knows!

A laurel for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which obtained exclusive body cam footage of an FBI raid on an election center in Georgia. Read all the latest Laurels and Darts by @banikarim.bsky.social.

Must’ve had an open bar

should we start a will lewis watch to see how long it takes him to show his face at the company he in theory runs during an actual crisis?

The DA of Santa Clara County, California, is the only prosecutor in the country to try a felony case against pro-Palestine student protesters since campus demonstrations began. The trial began last month and a verdict is expected soon.

“the feeling in the newsroom is that the way they’ve handled this is like some kind of sick psychological warfare," a washington post reporter tells cjr. www.cjr.org/news/layoffs...

all of this is stupid but i’m told that the post reports podcast has hundreds of thousands of subscribers which makes cutting it particularly weird given that podcasts are considered a huge revenue growth opportunity in most newsrooms.

A lot of people cannot just start a paid newsletter or become freelancers to sustain their careers. The sports, metro, and international desks did work that requires *team* resources, like legal checks, documents, access to archives, and long-term beat experience.

I just got off the phone with Elizabeth's dad...she and her mom were freed tonight! Updated story: sahanjournal.com/education/co...

The next reporter's question was on ... healthcare savings accounts.

This is incredible work from the team @thenation.com. "The writers who have shared stories with us have done so in conditions that veer toward the impossible. They have written through hunger and grief, while huddling in makeshift shelters, and while listening to the thud of still-falling bombs."

if you haven't read this harrowing investigation about the use of spit hoods in mental health settings from @hannahfurfaro.bsky.social for the @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social, you should. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Former Texas Lege reporter here. A Dem hasn't held this seat since 1990. Tarrant is the safest of red suburban counties. There is no way the TX and national GOP aren't in panic mode right now.

Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a Texas state Senate election in a reliably Republican district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024

this order is really worth reading in full.

I talked to @ntabrizy.bsky.social about covering the brutal crackdown in Iran during a near-total communication blackout. “The level of violence that I’ve seen is completely incomparable to any other protest that I’ve covered in Iran,” she told me. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

it’s been chaotic weekend full of very bad news so i haven’t had a chance to share yet but in my column this week i highlight some great local reporting from @texasobserver.org & @prx.org. the value of local reporting could not be more clear than it is in this moment. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

i don’t know how we’re supposed to live like this. we have seen more people die on camera in the last few years than i think any decent person can absorb or process.

ICE Directive Discovery. Plus: silent Bezos, post-fire future, and an investigation in Texas. Read this week's Laurels and Darts by @banikarim.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

Yes - you have the right to film ICE agents, as long as you don't interfere with their law enforcement activities. Documenting ICE's actions can add a layer of accountability and shine a light on violent tactics, as well as help us advocate to abolish harmful policies.

All the valid criticism & snark has obscured a more fundamental problem for Weiss & Dokoupil’s reshaping of CBS’s evening news: nothing they’ve tried so far is interesting or new. As the abysmal ratings prove, pulling CBS out of 3rd place is going to take more than online noise. My latest column:

this feels like a bit.

i was looking at the @startribune.com for the latest pictures out of mn and happened upon this shot of a pure & perfect snow weasel which i think you probably need to see too.

my first column is up. come for the maga “journalist” who says he uncovered fraud in mn by shouting at random passersby outside childcare centers “where are the children at?” and stay for an extremely dystopian newspaper layoff even by today’s bleak media standards.