The best journalists are the people who seek out complexity, work to understand it — and then try to capture it while making the material feel urgent and compelling to normal people, without losing nuance. It’s really hard to do.

Blake Hounshell A popular alternative model of journalism is to seek stories so morally unambiguous that nuance is their enemy, and whose moral clarity is itself the source of urgency and narrative delight for readers. Personally I think stories produced under this model tend to suck

Because I've known him since childhood, the The Kansas City Star asked if I could explain how Eric Greitens went from Obama-boosting Dem to ultra-MAGA star. Here's my take ⬇️

Free story idea for someone: Are my aging AirPods and intermittent cell service making me seem crazy to people on the other end of the phone?

NEW: Welcome to the Steampunk edition of Biden in His Basement — John Fetterman's edgelord campaign for Pennsylvania Senate: nytimes.com/2022/06/28/us/…

Talking to Tim Miller is always as enlightening as it is entertaining, and I could easily write 5,000 more words on this nuanced and soul-searching book that has elements that touch on much more than politics:

Well this is big: washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

In tonight’s On Politics, the great ⁦Kate Zernike⁩ walks ⁦Blake Hounshell⁩ through the new political era on abortion. nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/…

Those of us who have spent a lot of time in one industry have all known people like Cassidy Hutchinson — young, talented, idealistic, poised before their life experiences might suggest. To poorly run organizations where integrity is lacking, such people are often dangerous.

NEW: Tomight's On Politics: I wrote about how Democrats' chances of keeping the Senate have gotten brighter in recent weeks. Will it last? nytimes.com/2022/07/05/us/…

Thing 1: nytimes.com/2022/07/06/us/… Thing 2: nytimes.com/2022/07/06/us/…

I spoke with the irrepressible Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, whose new obsession is a kind of 'Moneyball' for American government >>> nytimes.com/2022/07/06/us/…

What about the stance, though?

I am beyond thrilled to announce that I will serve as Director of the new "Safeguarding Democracy Project" UCLA School of Law. SafeguardingDemocracyProject.org. Here is the mission statement:

.Jonathan Weisman on the writings of Blake Masters, the hardline Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona: nytimes.com/2022/07/06/us/…

This seems like an unfair advantage vice.com/en/article/3ad… cc: Ellen L. Weintraub (@ellenlweintraub.bsky.social)

Your periodic reminder that the Delaware Court of Chancery is the least known but low-key most quietly important court in the country

Big news in the opinion journalism world. And big shoes to fill, in the late Fred Hiatt. David was a great editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, my hometown paper.

Thus embracing Trump's one and only diplomatic breakthrough. Interesting.