My friend Jake (that’s Dr. Beck to you!) on the crisis in Texas universities. www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...

People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.

I love many things about this @brianphillips.bsky.social piece, including all of the many very funny parts, but also this hat tip to good editing and the kicker, which puts deserved faith in student journalists. www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/n...

On Monday, December 1, Columbia University Press will be selling all books at 50% off! (And some books at 70%!) tinyurl.com/7wzhyfmv @columbiaup.bsky.social

Happy 55th birthday to the Gateway Journalism Review, one of the few remaining from the 1960s and 70s. Was proud to offer some historical context for this article. gatewayjr.org/institutions...

As a rule, journalists shouldn’t seek to be famous for anything other than their journalism.

They make games and movies like they used to. So many of them. Same with books. But the mechanisms you learned about them were totally gutted and changed to only amplify shit that's already popular. It's still there! You're just mostly on your own to find it.

damn this is well put together

Restoring the role of public editor would be the best thing the Times ever did for itself, as I've said for a decade.

Condé Nast folded a beloved magazine that treated youth and feminism as political topics, not trends. Read Sarah Leonard. www.cjr.org/feature/the-...

New favourite example of structural ambiguity

I saw Phil Rosenthal live tonight at The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ—hometown of Mikie Sherrill—while reloading election returns.

No matter the platform you should have your default feed be reverse chron of who/what you follow and curate and diversify that feed. You’ll be better informed and less prone to disinfo and group think. This is a hill I will die on.

In the wake of Indiana University's crackdown on student journalism, one alum cancelled $1.5 million in bequests, and another is putting the brakes on a $300k gift. www.indystar.com/story/news/e...

Well this is delightful and hopeful. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/s...

"Regardless of whether the precise number is 5, 6, 7, or 8 million, Saturday’s events are very likely the biggest single-day protest event since 1970, surpassing even the 2017 Women’s March demonstrations against Trump."

Uncritical, pandering happy talk journalism can be just as harmful as dishonest, bad faith partisan journalism.

This is a niche - and frankly not shocking - local union gripe. Why would a national news outlet cover this? Also, I have sources in the unions and I think (shockingly) the FP framing is a bit overblown. Cops are usually very skeptical of the left but also hopeful for better pay.

In 1947, some Hollywood stars including Henry Fonda stood up to anti-communist witch hunts. Now, Jane Fonda and artists like Viola Davis, Pedro Pascal and Billie Eilish are reviving their organization — the Committee for the First Amendment — to defend free speech again. buff.ly/B79gBQX #polisky

now that the news is official: some thoughts on Bari Weiss taking over at CBS News, and what it means that the Free Press—a publication that never apologizes or corrects itself when its "reporting" is ripped to shreds—is touted as a needed dose of "trust and integrity" slate.com/technology/2...

1/ DEVELOPING: A journalist was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital following another incident with an ICE agent at 26 Federal Plaza, an immigration court in NYC. The last I heard, he was getting X-rays for his lower back.

"We're seeing a very disturbing consolidation of American mass media in the hands of big business... that is politically related to the administration." — @jeffjarvis.bsky.social on NBC's "Sunday Today" www.today.com/video/how-tr...

My employer New York Public Radio just announced that it is offering @onthemedia.bsky.social, @radiolab.bsky.social, and other programs to at-risk public radio stations for free! More info: current.org/2025/09/wnyc...

If you don't have anyone with any health and science background, @theopennotebook.bsky.social has a database of freelancers www.theopennotebook.com/writers/ and a legion of resources to get your gen assignment reporters up to speed. also see healthjournalism.org 🩺 🧪

When covering a protest, it’s safety first. Story second. Here are some tips to protect yourself + your reporting. 🧵⤵️

Listen, as someone who owns a house on a street named for the larch, I feel like I have some authority on this: you can’t ethically write a piece about the British larch without explaining how to recognize them from quite a long way away. It’s malpractice. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

BREAKING: The Board of Immigration Appeals is trying to deport our client Mario Guevara, a journalist from El Salvador, despite his clear legal path to residency and an immigration judge's order to grant his release on bond.

Tenured academics, imho, are among those who really should not be cowed into silence, and I'm pretty damn disappointed at those who are.

1/4 RE Kimmel, what makes this possible is broadcast TV/radio specifically are subject to FCC regulation in ways other media aren't. With limited broadcast spectrum, idea is built on notion the public owns the airwaves. It gives the FCC authority to regulate in the vaguely defined "public interest."

Years ago Howard Stern exposed the arbitrary & pretextual nature of FCC enforcement. When the FCC fined him millions he urged listeners to send in complaints about Oprah to see if FCC treated all local complaints equally. Guess what? They didn't. What FCC's doing now is a dodge.

I could buy the argument for the "scarcity principle" behind FCC regulation of broadcast outlets in the early days of truly limited bandwidth. Changing technology has all but destroyed that justification.

There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to build on the rubble of what’s being destroyed before our eyes. Private corporations bending over to forcefeed everyone government-approved speech is evil and amoral, but more than anything this creates boring, inauthentic, unwatchable shit.

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

I wrote this essay right after inauguration day and it’s even more true today. dansinker.com/posts/202…

Trump in July: "I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”

“Seems,” madam? Nay, ‘tis! I know not “seems.”

Redford, 89 years old today. “All the President’s Men” (1976) owes its existence to him — buying the film rights, developing a script and cajoling a reluctant Woodward & Bernstein. I thought it was “a great character study,” he said — but for months, “they didn’t return my calls.”

Alan is my friend and a major force in television. Rolling Stone did a round of layoffs, and he was in it. Subscribe to his newsletter. For real. He's one of the most talented people I've ever worked with, and a mensch.

New cartoon about (gestures vaguely) www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...

At her Substack site, @karenattiah.bsky.social lists the posts that got her fired. karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washin... None of them is in the top .0001% of inflammatory things said or written by public figures that day.

There’s a way to be respectful in reporting on Charlie Kirk being shot while also refusing to whitewash who he was and what consequences his political activism has had. Obituaries for public figures are a part of history.

Also, this is what is wrong with the cable news formula. Even when they know nothing, they must fill the air and so they fill it with speculation. We don’t know why this terrible shooting happened. It’s dangerous to speculate motives or politics. Please stop.

I'm not sure I understand this thing of news orgs attributing updates in a breaking news story like this with "Trump says," when you would not report on any other breaking news story this way.

What the actual fuck. US Tennis Association: “We ask all broadcasters to refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the President’s attendance in any capacity, including ENG [Electronic News Gathering] coverage.”

I would want it posted, but only to show off what a good reporter and writer Cora Flynn is. So spread the good news about that!

When I first read this, I 💯% thought that Johnny Storm was in East Asia, stumping for Lee Jae Myung.

In *today’s* mail…

Today is August 1. Asking an academic how their book is going is a felony.

I reviewed the first season of South Park for my college alt-weekly. I said it was smart and vulgar and funny and that it would have a cult following but would never last. I’m very glad I was wrong about that last part.

Belated RIP to Gawker, it was a Good Website