I have spent the last day studying the brilliance of this account (the only studying I’ve done other than the playbook). Here’s what sets it off from all others. Walk with me:

Say what you will about Trump, his rhetorical instincts are still often sharp; I instantly pictured DeSantis pushing an old person in a wheelchair over a cliff with gusto talkingpointsmemo.com/news/republica…

Twitter blue check #enshittification defines the platform now, it's everywhere, but "#actually, you should just ignore trans people" in response to Tim Mak's loss of followers after posting a story on a Ukraine trans activist seems like a particularly egregious form

The Fox problem is the same as the Twitter problem – a mogul with less than a full deck, with no accountability measures built into the corporate structure that might temper the randomness and insanity, and the mainstreaming of alt-right/extremist content nytimes.com/2023/07/04/opi…

NYT coverage of #Barbenheimer in the mold of its "Biden economy may look great but storm clouds gather" coverage – and maybe its coverage of anything surprising/positive? nytimes.com/2023/07/21/mov…

New by me —> What would it look like if other media companies thought about their brand equity as little as Elon Musk thinks about Twitter's (er, I mean, X's)? (in which I have jokes) niemanlab.org/2023/07/if-oth…

First up is "Tasty" by John McQuaid. It is a captivating read that delves into the intricate world of taste. The book covers topics such as genetics, the mind-body connection, and the evolution of taste throughout history. #NationalBookLoversDay

Incredible case of police overreach: raiding/seizing an entire newspaper – over a story that was never published, with extremely minute local stakes kansasreflector.com/2023/08/11/pol…

The situation at Florida's New College is like a version of "Revenge of the Nerds" in which the jocks win – and that seems to be literally the level of thought that has gone into this nytimes.com/2023/08/14/opi…

There are few things that signal elitism more than putting an accent on "élitist" newyorker.com/news/daily-com…

DeSantis is indeed awkward. But owning it, as the article suggests, requires acknowledging it. That can't happen because in the world of MAGA performative hypermasculinity, "awkwardness" = weakness, and somehow admitting it would be worse washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023…

During my 20 years in politics, two destructive trends stand out: the steady radicalization of the Republican Party and the trivialization of politics, particularly the way it is covered by US media and how politicians respond to that dynamic.

This study (which I worked on) has many interesting insights on the state of local journalism in Maryland (and more broadly) during a difficult time for news media