Somewhere, John Peter Zenger's chuckling about the Sandwich guy's acquittal. It's an All-American outcome. A nice thing about the U.S.A.: Sometimes the law can be defined by just 12 regular folks... not the President, nor Congress. www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcn...

Rep. Jared Golden's career arc in 15 months, in two Bangor Daily News Op-eds. I wonder if he regrets his Op-ed saying "Democracy will be just fine" if Donald Trump won the 2024 election? He's apparently quitting now because democracy isn't "just fine" (polarization, violence).

Big news up here: Incumbent Democrat Jared Golden is dropping out of the election for Maine Congressional District 2 (CD-2). www.bangordailynews.com/2025/11/05/o...

How I discovered Dick Cheney [like many of us] used to pilfer hotel soaps. The latest in the Lint Trap, with a hat tip to The Smoking Gun website. linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/dick-chene...

I think too many people are dismissing Marjorie Taylor Greene's appearance on "The View" as a joke or oddball curiosity, largely because it's "daytime" (read: women's) programming. Yet it's a pretty good model of civil interchange and dialogue unavailable elsewhere in 2025.

The Smoking Gun website never disappoints. "Dick Cheney's Backstage Rider" includes: "All Televisions tuned to FOX news" [also, hilariously: "Extra soaps" - like all of us, Cheney liked to pocket a few for back home?] www.thesmokinggun.com/backstage/po...

In American politics, it's somewhat difficult to get the vast majority of *both* Democrats + Republicans to repudiate your legacy. Even Nixon and Sen. Joe McCarthy had die-hards and dead-enders (and even vindicators). Yet Dick Cheney managed this.

President Gerald Ford allowed the idea to emerge that 34-year-old Dick Cheney was running the White House (as his Chief of Staff) as a young Machiavelli. Yet, as we know today, behind-the-scenes Ford kept Cheney on a tight leash (to everyone's benefit).

Dick Cheney will be remembered for the Iraq War. Nothing in his life had such serious and long-lasting consequences. It is his legacy. Which is why it was so dumb for Harris to campaign with Liz Cheney in 2024, when her opponent correctly called the Iraq War "a disaster."

Nice to see the launch of "Replay Booth" a new sport history podcast by @joshuablevin.bsky.social (formerly of @slate.com ). There's space for the kind of thoughtful, engaging sport stories the old "Only a Game" on NPR used to run, and this could be it. www.replaybooth.show/p/replay-boo...

Who is Robert Cornelius, and why are so many people making AI animations [and posting them on Youtube and Tik Tok] of a man from Philadelphia who took a photograph of himself in 1839? The latest in The Lint Trap. linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/american-t...

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart." A. Bartlett Giamatti "The Green Fields of the Mind " mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giama...

I'm just watching this on TV thousands of miles from where it's taking place... ... and my heart rate is skyrocketing. I'm sweating. This is some great TV.

To be the man, you got to beat the man. This game shows just how incredibly difficult it is to retain a championship and repeat (in any sport).

Announcer just mentioned Cardinals' Grover Cleveland ("Pete") Alexander who won Game 6 and came in to Game 7 in relief to win. Ronald Reagan starred in a movie about it. But the part that's forgotten: Babe Ruth caught stealing ended a one-run game. Biggest bone-headed play in World Series history.

The challenge by the Dodgers stepped on "Crazy Train" going into the commercial. What else is cued up?

The two greatest Game 7s in World Series history were 1924 (Senators over Giants, 12 innings) and 1991 (Twins over Braves, 10 innings). This is close.

"Thriller" ....after Pages makes the catch and we move to the 10th inning. That's the most brilliant bumper selection in a World Series telecast filled with amazing music.

I'm really appreciating Substack Notes these days. I hope it continues its growth and emerges as a real alternative, because the downsides of both X and Blue Sky seem to be intensifying.

The so-called "ceasefire" celebrated on "60 Minutes" with the Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff interview apparently didn't actually result in the cessation of any firing. I wonder how CBS News will revisit this issue now that the story's changed.

Complacency is the place where MAGA + the Democratic Party mirror each other. Both pretend to not know (or wilfully ignore) just how unpopular they are. There exists a massive opportunity for politician who rejects both [but the huge obstacle is no institutional support or party structure].

Only $1 million? To accelerate the process of automating K-12 education that'll ultimately put schools like Penn's Graduate School of Education out of business? That's a very cheap bribe for an Ivy League school. The conversation should've started at $100 million.

"Tom Wolfe couldn’t even get published today...Who would publish his attack on William Shawn and the New Yorker? How about the Flak Catchers? No way. Maybe 'Frank Sinatra Has a Cold' wouldn’t be published either. Too long!" - 93-year-old legend Gay Talese www.metropolitanreview.org/p/the-last-l...

Tonight Washington Commanders are starting Bobby Wagner [7th greatest inside linebacker in NFL history according to Pro Football Reference's HOF monitor] & Von Miller [8th greatest outside LB in NFL history] in same game. Only comparable is '70s Steelers (Lambert #3 inside LB & Ham #3 outside LB).

"Overall, we found the AI-generated lesson plans to be decidedly boring, traditional and uninspiring." Fascinating study: Researchers used 3 different AI apps to design +300 8th grade civics lesson plans. Result: They were crappy. theconversation.com/ai-generated...

There's a new AI website called Formatmypaper.com promising to properly format citations for academic papers. It might be useful (?) but I won't upload my original research randomly to AI websites I know nothing about. Latest in the Lint Trap⬇️ linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/brief-thou...

“By her Threat Letter and this responsive Declaratory Action and related Anti- SLAPP Declaratory Action, Mrs. Trump has given Wolff subpoena power which he intends to exercise fully” @michaelwolffnyc.bsky.social is doing more to defend media freedom than CBS + ABC. deadline.com/2025/10/mela...

The 1950 CCNY NCAA Champs, Boston College point-shaving scandal, Tim Donaghy... The gamblers seem to think basketball's probably the easiest game to rig? (Except, perhaps, tennis?)

Seems like a good day to repost this column from four years ago. If the explosion in sports gambling is finally-- as was inevitable-- turning into a major scandal, can problems for the press be far behind? dicktofel.substack.com/p/the-press-...

A little more to add: It turns out his oyster company's biggest customer is his mother's restaurant? Ivy league educated grandfather, father with law degree and legal practice, and restaurant-owner mother doesn't strike me as typical Maine working class background. But who knows?

Graham Platner family's social class history trajectory is fascinating to me: 1. Grandfather Warren Platner graduated from Cornell in 1941 and became world-famous figure in modernist interior design, working with Saarinen. 2. Father: small-town lawyer in Maine. 3. Son: Oyster farmer (w/ college BA).

“Middle age is when your old classmates are so grey and wrinkled and bald they don’t recognize you.” -Bennett Cerf I went looking for a specific Bennett Cerf quote, and stumbled upon a wonderful oral history. Latest in the Lint Trap of History. linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/notable-ne...

If you're on campus at UMaine in Orono today, stick around for @nytimes.com sports writer Ken Belson who'll be talking about his new book "Every Day Is Sunday" in Neville Hall 101 at 5:30 p.m. Looking forward to it!

I just sent the draft of my book manuscript to my academic publisher today. It's 370 pages, 112,013 words, and it's very timely and relevant, and it addresses many critical + immediate issues in media. Looking forward to everyone reading it.... in 18 months to 2 years from now.

"I didn't know what a wavelength was...We couldn't foresee what radio was going to do in, not [just] in our country but throughout the world." -Sen. Clarence Dill, Senate sponsor of 1927 Federal Radio Act + 1934 Communications Act (1965 interview) Nobody knew anything about what they regulated.

Who knew the dream of every journalist in D.C., New York City (Brooklyn), and San Francsico was to move to the coast of Maine and work on weekly newspaper? I'm lucky. It's beautiful up here, and I never take it for granted. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/s...

Ethics Q for scholars and journalists: What do you when a pretty bad place on the web hosts one of the best digital archives? The latest in the Lint Trap. linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/the-useful...

The thing about professional, ethical journalism [in U.S.A., c. 1940 - 1990) is that you don't know really know how essential it is to democracy until it disappears. It was taken for granted that your Sunday newspaper, Huntley-Brinkley, Cronkite + Jennings would be around forever.

While everyone focuses on the No Kings rally, and Trump's social media response... It's possible the real legacy might be the injection of pervasive AI slop fully into our political process. Will this be the event historians point to that opened the floodgates of AI slop?

All these posts + articles stating that AI tech is now upholding the entire U.S. economy & stock market are a problem. Regardless of whether it's true or not, it implicitly creates a situation (or perception?) where resisting AI results in harming the economy. That's what they want you to think.

Anybody who loves browsing real estate listings (like me) has noticed this AI trend. Some images are so incredibly phony (i.e. impossibly gorgeous window views- the colors are too vibrant, etc.) it makes you think they know they're trying to con you. slate.com/business/202...

"When asked about that argument, the Student Press Law Center's Hiestand laughed: 'They're just making stuff up, and quote me on that.'" This story from Indiana University-the censorship of a University newspaper at a traditionally great journalism school-is bonkers www.indystar.com/story/news/e...

RIP Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist of KISS. Taught himself how to play guitar (before Youtube) and couldn't read music. The only truly talented member of the band, his solos could be idiosyncratic, creative and... and quite good (e.g.: "Calling Dr. Love") www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Rl...

"CNN does not broadcast, Fox News does not broadcast, TikTok does not broadcast," [Socolow] says. I spoke with @npr.org for their "word of the week" segment. This week's word? "Broadcasting." www.npr.org/2025/10/15/n...

AI can do OK news commentary + analysis (nothing great- nothing too inventive, creative, or incisive) because it summarizes & synthesizes others' work well. But it can't pick up a phone or do "shoe leather" reporting because it doesn't have hands or feet. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

I don't understand this (from Bangor Daily News): If she'll be 79 years old on her first day in the Senate, how can she guarantee she'll live to be 85 years old?

Nobody should "like" this post, but in Bangor, Maine, we have a Nazi running for City Council right now, and swastikas keep popping up around town. Really horrible. www.bangordailynews.com/2025/10/14/b...

What a strange, bizarre story. The Media School @ Indiana Univeristy [Ernie Pyle, '23*] demands school newspaper print *no news* in homecoming edition of the paper. When media advisor balks ("This is First Amendment stuff”), he's fired? *didn't graduate www.idsnews.com/article/2025...

I was asked to write an "explainer" for @us.theconversation.com on why there's no First Amendment in broadcasting. Here's my simple (bit too basic) explanation. Something few remember: The FCC Chairman who hated free speech the most was Republican Michael Powell. theconversation.com/the-limits-o...

They wore costumes to perform... ON THE RADIO. Think about that. Also, it's amazing how many very early radio programs (see the NBC logo on the microphone? Those are carbon-suspension mics, very, very primitive) were sponsored by tire manufacturers. Goodyear, Firestone, Michelin... Radio=travel.