Jacob Wohl is the guy of “I overheard people talking in a hipster coffee shop about how much they love Donald Trump” fame. He’s apparently now making six figures securing pardons for fraudsters.

When I was on CNN's northeast desk, the first job at 6a every morning was to read the local papers. That guided some of what the massive CNN machine followed every day. When those papers die, CNN doesn't hire new regional reporters. What you get instead is more panel shows, more punditry.

Over the Chicago River and thru the hoods.

Something that's getting lost in this story is that the "instructor" in question is not a professor with a PhD; she is a Graduate Teaching Assistant, meaning the University of Oklahoma has thrown one of ITS OWN STUDENTS under the bus to appease a right wing grifter who tried to dunk on a trans woman

That dude's the majority leader in the Indiana state senate. Absolutely wild post.

bonkers time to be posting old photos with this man in particular

Kind of wild how the take that some of Trump's supporters were "deplorable" was some huge scandal, but regularly screaming about "radical left scum" is just a thing he'll say with no media backlash.

Happy Christmas, comrades!

Dave Willat was just 11 years old when he showed up for what he thought would be a routine church choir practice in 1965. He and his fellow singers ended up making history.

One thing I learned while reporting this is that social media monitoring firms now use AI to scan for logos, so your smiling selfie in a team hat is getting scooped up too! Merry Christmas from the capitalist surveillance state!

So this is something I've been noticing more lately: people seeing an image, wrongly assuming it's AI, and then confidently raging about it being AI when it wasn't. Example: the replies to this Pluribus-themed image Tim Cook posted on X.

When you're grumpy because three annoying ghosts kept you up all night.

My all-time favorite Christmas song: the Old 97s "I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)" youtu.be/-E1ULv6LcOk?...

This is an absolutely brutal journalism prediction for 2026. And it might be right.

No offense, but I shouldn't have to tell you how to do your job. Watch #NightThoughts on Hulu

Watching @kumail.bsky.social's new stand-up special on Hulu! Loving it so far.

i’m posting the video again

this photo was going viral on here like an hour before Charlie Kirk got shot and now that the dust has settled somewhat it’s time to revisit how funny this is

That fascist has a point

An interesting feature of this is that Weiss seems to think the primary goal is "winning back" Americans who don't trust the news, which extends beyond truth-telling into a political project. Furthermore we know she wants to "win back" a very specific demographic: right-wingers.

Since we’re on the topic of asking people for comment …

"Like Amazon Prime, but with human beings."

The university made this exceedingly clear just a week ago. bsky.app/profile/dani...

The basic truth is the University of Oklahoma fired an instructor because she had the audacity to do her job while trans. Media like CNN are complicit in simultaneously pushing the anti-trans narrative and covering up the brutal outcomes of this societal purge.

Bari Weiss is trying to pretend she isn’t a far-right propagandist that’s in the pocket of the Trump administration, and failing miserably.

An enraging trend right now, from CBS to the CDC, of people actively undermining institutions, then taking the reins of those institutions and claiming they need to rebuild the trust they helped destroy. (Also, people already trusted 60 Minutes.) bsky.app/profile/just...

She's just a genuinely terrible person.

Another collection of newsroom buzzwords slopped together not to actually explain what happened, but to mollify the enlightened centrist audience that it would inevitably be leaked to

Great article summarizing the rotten information environment we all now find ourselves in.

“Leaving behind over 3 million followers” is a crazy thing to write lol

One confusing thing about liberal media outlets like the NY Times and CNN is that they're extremely right-wing: open.substack.com/pub/thecolum... by @ahjohnson.bsky.social

Re-upping

This is all so depressing.

Best explanation of the liar's dividend that I've ever seen.

In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.

Time for Pluribus

This discussion is stellar- Definitely worth taking in.

a highlight of my year @concertshub.bsky.social

This might be the thing that gets Nate Silver to turn on Trump

Since we're all talking about the horrors of Bukele and everything he's doing with CECOT, I want to share a photo of this garage here in Chicago that has LGBTQ Pride iconography, some Black Lives Matter stuff... and a sign praising Bukele? Just wild aesthetics.

Adding on to the clip @parkermolloy.com found where the dumbass OU student admits she just rushed through the assignment. This isn't an issue of a trans instructor trying to force students to adhere to their worldview...it's a moron student half-assing an assignment and trying to shift blame.

Real talk: I would really appreciate it if you'd all consider subscribing to my newsletter (free or paid) (www.readtpa.com) or becoming a paid subscriber to my Patreon (patreon.com/parkermolloy). It's been a difficult year work-wise. If you enjoy my writing, please support it. Thanks!

Circling back

Rahm lies throughout this piece. But also, check out this takedown I wrote about him a few months back www.readtpa.com/p/the-smalle...

Decided to upload the entire 60 Minutes segment in today's newsletter. Let's see how long it lasts. www.readtpa.com/p/watch-the-...

I love this team too much. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8yyJa72/

I can't do justice to this insane year in one episode. But the new PTFO Christmas Spectacular, with @katienolan.bsky.social and Michael Cruz Kayne, is our best attempt to close it out. 🫶🍔 youtu.be/y4SVvFxtA6w?...