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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: TV
What is a ‘Received Idea’?
A “received idea” (French: idée reçue) is a commonplace, stereotypical, conventional, or clichéd opinion that circulates widely in society and is accepted and repeated without critical examination, original thought, or supporting evidence. The concept comes from Gustave Flaubert. In his … Continue reading
Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
In 1996, Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) went on French television to attack French television. The two lectures, published as On Television, made a claim that sounded like media criticism but was social theory. The journalistic field, he argued, enjoyed little autonomy. … Continue reading
Posted in France, Pierre Bourdieu, TV
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Mike Adamle and the Meaning of Heart
It is April 1980. I am thirteen. The place is Sea World San Diego, and the families move past the tanks in the heat with their souvenir cups, and on the beach stands Mike Adamle (b. 1949), whom I watch … Continue reading
Posted in TV
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Decoding Better Call Saul
Alliance Theory says morality is coalition management. We signal virtue to attract allies, shame defectors, and justify power plays. Better Call Saul is about a man who cannot find a stable coalition, so he keeps reinventing one. I. Jimmy McGill … Continue reading
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Decoding Breaking Bad
David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory treats morality as coalition management. People moralize to recruit allies, justify dominance, and punish defectors. Breaking Bad is a near-perfect case study. I. Walter White’s original coalition Walter starts with a tiny, fragile alliance. His family. … Continue reading
Posted in TV
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The fatal disconnect between vision (the destination) and character (the vehicle)
I don’t normally care for science fiction, but the TV show Pluribus holds my attention, which is my number one requirement for a show (as long as it does not make me feel gross). Michael Brendan Daugherty writes about the … Continue reading
When The Camera Turns On You
I heard a comment once on talk radio that everybody thinks he can act, run a country, and host a talk show. Acting is largely reacting and a large part of the TV sports broadcast is up-close shots of members … Continue reading
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The Shield
Commentary: The reason The Shield is television’s greatest drama is that it holds to the most basic rule of drama: characters act, and those actions have consequences. Events happen, not to make a point to us, but from what the … Continue reading
LAT: ‘Cops’ creator John Langley dies during road race in Mexico
From the New York Times June 29, 2021: “In the Academy interview four years earlier, Mr. Langley addressed criticism about race in “Cops” by saying that while 60 to 70 percent of street crime was “caused by people of color,” … Continue reading
Posted in Police, Reality Shows, TV
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Compulsive Viewing: The Inside Story Of Packer’s Nine Network
Here are some highlights from this 2000 book by Gerald Stone about Australia’s leading TV network of the time: * What does it take to become a television star? Performers may look like they are speaking directly to you — … Continue reading