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.

A judge vacated the conviction a woman who spent 5 years in prison after experiencing a stillbirth. In vacating her conviction, the judge found that new evidence showed her pregnancy loss was caused by an infection—not substance use.

“I’m a physician!” —bystander, neighbor “I don’t care.” —ICE agent

Dozens of feds, large MPD response, an observer saying he's a physician and had a gun pointed at him for checking the victim's pulse

this video is shocking and pretty clearly contradicts statements made by noem & authorities that ice officers were acting in self-defense.

Some new year news from me! Starting next week I’m picking up the Laurel & Darts column from the incomparable @bgrueskin.bsky.social for a bit. I’m thrilled to be working with Betsy Morais and the team at @columjournreview.bsky.social again. (1/4)

is she… lecturing them on how 60 minutes is supposed to work? as if they haven’t been doing that work for years while she runs an opinion blog?

sharyn alfonsi is one of the most professional and levelheaded journalists i’ve worked with. it’s wrong on many levels that she and her colleagues are having their work questioned by someone who has never done reporting of this depth and fundamentally doesn’t understand the stakes.

this is so pure and i love it.

this sounds like so much work? i literally listen to podcasts because someone else has done all this for me and i can access ai myself if i just want to ask it a bunch of questions.

not sure how to feel about this.

it’s hard to express how disheartening it is to be middle eastern in nyc right now. i will never understand someone using this to score cheap political points.

in an era of dystopian headlines, this still feels next level.

tony soprano would be so proud.

the work nova does helps people when they are at their most vulnerable. helping crime victims is in no way a partisan issue and cutting off funding for programs that help victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse is shameful.

i got a little more information about carlos watson's commutation and how it happened. somehow on this story there's always a celebrity connection. www.thedailybeast.com/secret-sveng...

carlos watson has released a statement thanking president trump for “his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for those who have been wrongfully targeted.”

Say what you want about the Trump admin but commuting the sentence of Ozy's Carlos Watson was a kitchen table issue in the Pennsylvania suburbs.

If you haven't already, now's a good time to listen to the three-part podcast @banikarim.bsky.social and I made for @columjournreview.bsky.social about the trial of Carlos Watson www.cjr.org/kicker/the-u...

carlos watson’s sentence has been commuted by the trump administration. juda engelmayer, a spokesperson for watson, says the commutation came through as he was headed to report to prison for his nearly 10 year prison sentence.

for those following the ozy story, samir rao was sentenced today to time served & 2 years of supervised release. rao, who testified against carlos watson at his trial, was the co-founder who impersonated a youtube exec on the now infamous call with goldman sachs in 2021.

deserved win but it feels like baby reindeer came out 7 years ago. #thegoldenglobes

i would have tanked an office pool for this golden globes. almost every win has surprised me (complimentary)

i wasn’t convinced about nikki glaser hosting but that was a very good set.

anthony mackie just said on the golden globes red carpet that he whips his pb&j before he spreads it and at first i thought that’s crazy. but now i’m thinking maybe he’s a genius. is this something people do?

happy christmas week from dolly. she’s ready for even more naps and treats. #dogsofinstagram

these text messages are wild: “And socials are really really ramping up. In his favour, she must be furious. It’s actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/b...

One of my favorite parts of this conversation was just how enormously entertained Roth was by every detail of the grift.

hanging out with @drewmagary.bsky.social and @davidjroth.bsky.social was one of the highlights of my week but don’t tell either of them i said that. i will deny it.

Carlos Watson gets nearly 10 years in digital media fraud case. @banikarim.bsky.social and I were in court today www.cjr.org/analysis/car...

carlos watson has been sentenced to almost 10 yrs, less than the 17 yrs prosecutors asked for but significantly more than the 2 yr minimum. The judge mentioned the “brazenness” of the fraud, the damage to the lives of employees Watson lied to and his “striking determination” to blame others… 1/

being able to schedule texts is one of the best things that’s happened to me, an insomniac.

nobody writes a story with deep empathy better than eli saslow. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/u...

In today's finale, Carlos Watson takes the stand—and the jury reaches a verdict. Listen in to "The Unravelling of Ozy Media," a special three-part series of The Kicker, hosted by @banikarim.bsky.social and @joshuahersh.bsky.social. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

The finale is here! In the close of The Unraveling of Ozy Media, @banikarim.bsky.social takes us through a cinematic turn of events in the courtroom—and we ask what more than a decade of puffery, largesse, and grift, has done to the business of digital media. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

In Episode 2 of The Unraveling of Ozy Media: Carlos Watson claims all of digital media lied about their numbers. Does he have a point? We talk to Reeves Wiedeman about Vice—and @banikarim.bsky.social reveals an industry secret. Plus: A key witness takes the stand. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Listen in to the first episode of “The Unraveling of Ozy Media,” a three-part series on the trial of Carlos Watson and the excesses of the digital media age, with hosts @banikarim.bsky.social & @joshuahersh.bsky.social. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

The 1st ep of The Unraveling of Ozy Media, a pod from @joshuahersh and me about Carlos Watson’s trial for @CJR is out now! Come for the infamous call where Watson's co-founder impersonated a YouTube exec and stay for all the legal twists & turns. There’s so much more to the story.

This piece from @annamerlan.bsky.social is unsurprisingly so good. “If Smith has questions, so might anyone viewing the show: about what its aims are, its standards for fact-checking, and why it consistently adopts anti-immigration narratives, despite Smith being a Canadian immigrant himself.”

I spent this summer in a federal courthouse watching Carlos Watson’s trial and sending @joshuahersh.bsky.social voice memos about it. It was a wild ride and here’s a lil sneak peek of a special 3 part podcast for CJR: The Unraveling of Ozy Media starting Monday.

this is a really interesting look at the economics of substack.

i don’t want to gloat but i was already doing this before it was cool. nymag.com/intelligence...