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- Emily Oster: The Economist in the Delivery Room
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- * 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)
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* 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)
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Category Archives: Journalism
What are the most annoying questions journos ask?
“Do you regret it?” A favorite after any controversy. It assumes guilt and tries to push the subject into confession. The journalist wants a moment of moral submission. “Would you like to apologize?” A trap disguised as a courtesy. If … Continue reading
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Experts Say This Is The Greatest Blog In The Universe
“Experts say.” This is the journalist’s favorite authority laundering device. It implies consensus without naming anyone accountable. Often it means one or two friendly analysts who already share the reporter’s framing. The phrase transfers prestige from “expertise” to the story … Continue reading
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Why do journalists talk about how their heart breaks over the suffering of unrelated people on the other side of the world?
It’s phony and maladaptive in evolutionary psychology terms so we know it is bs. Human empathy evolved for small groups and visible suffering, not for anonymous populations thousands of miles away. So when journalists speak about their “hearts breaking” for … Continue reading
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Why Do Journalists Fetishize How Tough They Are?
The “toughness” ritual acts as a form of moral purification for the journalist. By emphasizing conflict, the reporter cleanses themselves of the “stain” of proximity to a high-status political actor. Through an Alliance Theory lens, this behavior ensures that the … Continue reading
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Don’t Journalists Understand That People Rarely Say What They Mean And Rarely Mean What They Say?
Alliance Theory helps explain why the media behaves the way it does. First, understand the professional norm inside major newsrooms. Journalists are trained to treat statements as literal claims that must be verified or falsified. So when someone like Donald … Continue reading
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Decoding NYT National Security Correspondent David Sanger
In 2026, David Sanger’s role as a narrator of the state has become even more pronounced as the national security alliance faces internal fragmentation. Through the Alliance Theory lens, his longevity is not a result of objective foresight but of … Continue reading
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Decoding The Blob (America’s Foreign Policy Establishment)
The distinction between a war of necessity and a war of choice is pure signalling. These categories are not objective descriptors of military reality but are propagandistic tools used to manage the internal prestige of the coalition. Why have elites … Continue reading
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Decoding The Differences In Iran War Coverage Between The WSJ, FT, Le Monde, Al Jazeera & Haaretz
The Iran war has entered a critical phase where the conflict is no longer a series of isolated strikes but a full-scale regional realignment. As of March 2, 2026, the military logic of “Epic Fury” is being met by a … Continue reading
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Decoding The Financial Times & The Iran War
Here’s how Financial Times (FT) tends to cover the Iran war and what that tells you when decoded through a coalitional lens like David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, and how that compares with typical US media framing: 1. Core FT focus … Continue reading
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Decoding Fox News & The Iran War
I want to break down how Fox News is covering the Iran war and what that says about its coalitional positioning and narrative choices, per Alliance Theory. 1. Strong alignment with hawkish, national-security coalition Fox News consistently frames the Iran … Continue reading
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