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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:
- Robert Putnam: The Man Who Counted What America Lost
- W. Bradford Wilcox: The Sociologist Who Tells America to Get Married
- Peter Moskos: The Cop Who Talks to People
- Julius Krein
- Ryan Burge: The Numbers Man in the Empty Church
- Emily Oster: The Economist in the Delivery Room
- The Most Ridiculous Story Ever Told
- Tanner Greer
- Economist Tyler Cowen
- Richard Reeves: A Life in Institutions
- Jake Adelstein: The Reporter Who Became His Story
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
- Moira Greyland
- Robert Oscar Lopez: The Inconvenient Witness
- Two Ledgers: Decoding the Gurus and the Price of Talk
- The Pervert’s Progress: Costin Vlad Alamariu and the Making of Bronze Age Pervert
- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
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: Journalism
Why do elites and journos love the word ‘predicate’?
Per Alliance Theory, elites and journalists love the word “predicate” because it performs several social functions inside the professional class. It is less about grammar and more about status signaling, precision theater, and alliance language. First, it signals membership in … Continue reading
Posted in Elites, Journalism
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Decoding CNN Anchor Jake Tapper
Jake Tapper, read through David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, functions as a procedural legitimacy anchor for the institutional media coalition. His core function is not investigation or advocacy. It is the stabilization of elite narratives during periods of political stress. To … Continue reading
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Why does the MSM fetishize “seriousness” and dismiss Trump’s team for lack thereof?
The mainstream media’s fixation on “seriousness” is an alliance signal inside the professional class, not a neutral evaluation of competence. When journalists call someone serious, they mean that person speaks the language and follows the rituals of the professional governing … Continue reading
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If Trump said he was going to have relations with the Ayatollah’s dead body, how would the media report it?
It would depend on the outlet and the coalition it serves, but the pattern would be fairly predictable. The mainstream institutional press would sanitize the language while emphasizing the extremity of the statement. A typical framing might look like this. … Continue reading
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Trump Might Be On A Roll
John Ellis writes: It’s sort of an article of faith in the “mainstream” news media that President Trump’s war in Iran will end badly and do him grievous political harm. You don’t have to read between the lines of the … Continue reading
Posted in America, Iran, Journalism
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But Have We Thought Deeply Enough?
“Hasn’t thought deeply about it” is another prestige phrase in the expert and journalism world. On the surface it sounds like a neutral intellectual criticism. In practice it often means the person has not adopted the same framework or assumptions … Continue reading
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Will We Create ‘Regime Change’?
I’m listening to expert commentary on the Iran War from various academics and the plethora of cliches is a tad annoying, particularly because they flow down in IQ to journalists who turn them into tropes. “Regime change” has become one … Continue reading
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Will we help?
Another familiar journalist move is the humanitarian appeal framed as a policy question. “Will we help?” “Will the United States step in?” “Will the world act to save these people?” It appears constantly in coverage of wars, famines, and disasters. … Continue reading
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The weight of history
“The weight of history” is one of the more pretentious clichés in political journalism. When reporters say a leader is “going against the weight of history,” they are usually doing two things at once. First they are implying that history … Continue reading
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Journalists love to tell us how much they worry about abstract issues.
I’m deeply worried that if we drop another bomb on Iran, it might get mad. We might get factionalization! Journalists often frame their commentary around abstract anxieties because that language signals moral seriousness and professional responsibility. It is part of … Continue reading
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