MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2025As always, dueling America(s): For the second successive week, the New York Times has performed a substantial service on the front page—on page A1—of its Sunday print editions.For the second straight Sunday, the Times is challenging those of us in Blue Ame … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2025Weekend Friends try to explain: The friends held off as long as they could. This morning, at 6:23 a.m., they finally confessed, if haltingly.To its credit, Fox News Digital had reported the relevant fact yesterday. The report had appeared right around no … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025Rep. Omar gets to respond: What manner of "illness" was mental illness? We place our question in a past tense because, when we consult the leading authority, it almost sounds like that familiar locution may be going away:Mental disorder"Mental Illness" red … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025So did quite a few others: As we've noted in recent weeks, Lawrence O'Donnell has been the must-see cable news anchor of the past month or so.Other hosts at MSNBC have basically gone through the mandated topics, performing critiques by rote. O'Donnell has … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2025Our press corps won't tell you about it: We correct ourselves for the second time concerning Jen Psaki's program. Last evening, she did report and discuss what the president did--what he did for the second straight day. As you can see by clicking this li … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2025...MS NOW stars kept their traps shut: Yesterday, there he went again! Just as he'd done the previous day, the sitting president—President Sanitized—came for the Somalis again.He came for them for the second straight day! But if you're a person who watch … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3, 2025Here we go again: Did Pete Hegseth commit a war crime? We suppose it's certainly possible that he actually did. That said, the knives are out for the highly erratic, widely scorned Secretary of Defense. In some quarters, that has produced a familiar type … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2025Morning Joe takes a dive: As we've noted in the past, "illness" can be a challenging term. Not when we speak about physical illness, but when we try to speak about that other way to be "ill.". What kind of "illness" do we mean? We've posted the relevant … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2025She'd like to see them bleed out: Did it start with five years of Donald Trump's birtherism? Was that where it started?For us, that was the start of a remarkable era in which we learned how many people out in the world seem to be out of their minds. Today … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2025War with one's own people: The principle dates to antiquity—to the dawn of "European literature."(Prepare for a somewhat arcane discussion. We think a key point is involved.)The principle is voiced by Nestor, the seasoned charioteer, in Book IX of the Ili … | Continue reading
MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2025Biden Biden Biden, Noem said: It was an exciting 6 o'clock hour on today's Morning Joe.Good lord! This morning, MS NOW's new regime gave Morning Joe its first hour back! The new regime's substantially longer ad breaks were vastly postponed as a group of hi … | Continue reading
MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2025As does the Fox News Channel: We're going to start with Colby Covington, just as we did in Saturday's endless report.Covington is known to many people, not known to many others. We're scoring him as a good, decent person. As part of a much longer discussio … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2025Marchese fails to report: Should Colby Covington, age 37, be on a primetime "cable news" show as a commentator?There's no correct answer to that. But as to a separate question—what happens each night on the Gutfeld! show—we direct you to what occurred t … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2025War of its several types: In Wednesday afternoon's report, with Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, we issued a tiny word of caution about the attractions of war.We even quoted President Lincoln. "We must not be enemies," he once said. "We are not enemies, … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2025With that, Thanksgiving was born: Should the Democratic Party Six have issued that videotaped statement?It triggered the predictable fury, first from President Trump himself. After that, it came from the fellow who prefers to call himself the Secretary … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2025Gutfeld gets the word: Yes, he could—and yes, he actually did!It's as we noted (again) yesterday. On at least three occasions during last year's campaign, Greg Gutfeld wondered if Hunter Biden was possibly having sex with first lady Jill Biden.As we've … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2025...have issued that now-famous taped statement? Should the Democratic Party Six have issued that now-famous statement?The statement has triggered the usual fury. This has been a busy time, but we hope to address that important question tomorrow afternoo … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2025...this is what we mean: Watching the Gutfeld! show is a constant exercise is a type of fascination.Having said that, we want to be frank. We're speaking of Conrad's famous phrase from The Heart of Darkness:"The fascination of the abomination." We're in … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2025Gutfeld! reviews marches on: Due to a short stop at the medical mission, we'll be posting a little bit later than usual today.At that point, we'll be marching forward with our review of the Gutfeld! program. We plan to move on from this current project a … | Continue reading
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2025Inquiring minds wanted to know: We mentioned this morning that President Trump has been on a jag of late. At Mediaite, you can read about the kinds of outbursts and bizarre claims which get disappeared—and thereby normalized—by major orgs in Blue America … | Continue reading
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2025Blue elites are deferential to him: Thanksgiving came early, over the weekend, here on this sprawling campus. Starting with last Friday's report, we granted ourselves a brief reprise from a dispiriting task. We refer to the dismal task of discussing the s … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2025But also, what Lincoln once said: A treasured word was (almost) completely missing from this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend. That treasured word was this:Communist Communist Communist Communist Communist Communist Communist!In recent weeks, it happened … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025...of the "cable news" Gutfeld! show: It's a basic rule in the comedy world. The performer can't ignore what's happening there in the room.For that reason, and with apologies, today we have listing of profiles—profiles of the Fox News Channel's primetime … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2025A road map for "brilliant writing:" Yesterday afternoon, on The Five, Jessica Tarlov, the designated non-MAGA co-host, was making a decent point.That, of course, was the problem. This imitation of a discussion show isn't designed for outcomes like that. … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2025Blue America looks away: Way back in 1991, Susan Faludi believed—we'll guess correctly—that a backlash was going on.For the record, she hadn't spotted just any backlash. She'd spotted the backlash she described in a major best-selling book:Backlash: The … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2025But how can we hope to do that? Given the journalistic and cultural chaos within which our nation now flounders and flails, what sorts of problems would "brilliant [political / cultural] writing" surely have to address?It's as we've noted in the past t … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2025It's been normalized for the past many years: We interrupt our Backlash retrospective to report what Jim VandeHei said.He spoke at 6:20 Eastern on today's Morning Joe. This is what he said:"In what world is that OK?"In what world is that [conduct] OK? … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2025...in the wake of the flood: With apologies, connectivity was gone for a good part of the day. This interrupted our ability to continue contemplating what Tina Brown recently said.In yesterday afternoon's report, we posted her comment. In an interview wi … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2025But he never said why: Who the heck is Colby Hall? We thought you'd never ask!Hall is the founding editor of Mediaite.com, a news site which records the types of (significant) nonsense the New York Times may choose to disappear. In the past few months, w … | Continue reading
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2025In search of brilliant writing: On this campus, we've long admired Tina Brown for her smarts and for her good sense.Over the weekend, the New York Times published an interview with Brown, an interview conducted by Lulu Garcia-Navarro. Along the way, we'd … | Continue reading
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2025Today, the backlash is hard to miss: Who the heck is Susan Faludi? We thought you'd never ask!Long ago and far away, when grandmother was still a little girl, Faludi wrote and published a book which became a major best-seller.The book was published on Oct … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2025And why does it get disappeared? A highly unusual thing takes place near the end of Amanda Hess's profile of the Gutfeld! show's Kat Timpf.Timpf is one of two regular panelists on the Fox News Channel program. (The other regular panelist is a former profe … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2025Times columnists bring in the snark: Lawrence O'Donnell has been on fire in the past quite a few weeks. Last night, holy cow! Rep. Khanna (D-Calif.) credited O'Donnell's program with launching the request which led to yesterday's release of all those Ep … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2025Obvious fact disappears: As you may have heard, the Fox News Channel's Gutfeld! program is, according to Nielsen, the third most-watched TV show in all of "cable news."Its host also tends to dominate proceedings as a co-host on The Five–and The Five has … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2025Jesse Watters speaks: In this morning's report, we reproduced part of Jesse Watters' "Masculinity monologues," as captured by the leading authority on these Fox News Channel orations.A tiny bit of background:In recent months, we'd been wondering if we' … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2025...large parts of his shtick disappeared: By the numbers, Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters are the most-watched performers at the new-and-revised Fox News Channel.At 5 p.m. Eastern, the towel-snapping, bro-aligned pair tend to dominate proceeding on The … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2025Rule by opening act: There seem to be quite a few different names for what might be called "rule by the rich." The leading authority on such systems starts with this familiar term:PlutocracyA plutocracy (from Ancient Greek πλοῦτος (ploûtos) 'wealth' and … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2025So goes the Fox News Channel: Who the Sam Hill is Zohran Mamdani? Because he's now mayor-elect of New York City, inquiring minds may want to know.One day after he was elected, NPR's Rachel Treisman attempted to puzzle it out. Headline included, her "exp … | Continue reading
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2025And so, the end of the shutdown came: Should ten Democrats have decided to vote to stop the shutdown? We'll link you to a pair of possible answers.In this column for the New York Times, Ezra Klein says he wouldn't have voted to end the shutdown, but by th … | Continue reading
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2025His conduct still gets disappeared: The battle over the government shutdown—the battle over food assistance; the battle over affordable health care—is taking place within a larger context.We refer to the nation's political discourse, or perhaps to its imi … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2025Telling this story is hard: At one point, the Harvard Law School graduate said it, though only perhaps in a dream:I was never a D-minus student, but I play one on cable TV.At one point, she may have said it. Last night, we were stunned by the manifest du … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2025We revisit that Times editorial: Online, the editorial appeared last Friday, along with goblins and ghosts. Today, with the political landscape changed, it seems like a high-minded visit from those who may now be numbered among the honored dead.https://www … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2025If next year actually happens: It isn't the fact that the Democratic candidates won. As we noted yesterday, it's the fact that they won by these margins:New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2025Mikie Sherrill (D): 1,805,244 (56.3%)Jack Ciattarelli (R): 1,384 … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025Warfare concerning his speech: Candidate Mamdani also won on Tuesday night, in this case by just under nine points. Warning! On a political basis, New York City isn't like anywhere else. Unique situations will always call for unique approaches and new id … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025Except on the Fox News Channel: Secretary of Trade War Howard Lutnick says the president is going to win the current case in the Supreme Court.Most observers seem to think that's unlikely. But last evening, sure enough! That's what Hannity viewers were t … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2025Charlie Hurt gets it wrong: Those were solid Democratic victories in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. What will those outcomes signal to the president, but also to his team? That remains to be seen. With respect to the Fox News Channel, … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2025Various sources of chaos: Even before election results rolled in, there he went again.We've suggested that you pity the child. Be that as it may, and for whatever reason, the president posted this yesterday, as reported by the New York Times:Republicans … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2025More chaos at this site tomorrow: "Dramatically better," Dr. [NAME WITHHELD] said. We had headed out this morning expecting an alternate reading.That said:We didn't return to campus until close to 4 p.m. We'll step aside till tomorrow. | Continue reading