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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
The Chattering Class Is Losing Their War On Reality
I loved Dexter Filkins’ book on Iraq, 2008’s The Forever War. When it came out, I blogged: “I can’t stop raving about this book. It is mesmerizing. It is hard to put down. This book is horrifying. Gritty. Real. I … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism
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Will The US Run Venezuela?
Trump said yesterday that the US will run Venezuela. Didn’t he say the same thing about the Gaza strip last February? I’m not sure how seriously and literally we should take Trump when he says the US will run Venezuela. … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Venezuela
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Why Did Trump Topple Maduro?
Mark Halperin writes: The media spent the day in its usual split-screen trance. Half the time, the press corps was gorging on the ‘gee whiz’ operational details of the mission—how fast it happened, how few shots were fired, who gave … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Venezuela
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The Ferguson Effect
I wrote this with help from Gemini: In the immediate aftermath of the 2014 Ferguson protests and the subsequent rise in homicides in several major cities (including St. Louis and Baltimore), the media coverage was defined by a stark partisan … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism
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The Top Ten Stories The MSM Played Down For Fear Of Helping Trump
Mark Halperin writes: National reporters ping-pong between policy detail and political intrigue. And always, lurking beneath, is the unmistakable tension: journalists know this is a huge story but fear amplifying it in ways that could benefit Trump politically. Mainstream media … Continue reading
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The MSM Hates That The Minnesota Somali Fraud Scandal Helps Trump
Mark Halperin writes: Even liberal operatives admit privately that if one were designing a scandal tailor-made for right-wing outrage, the end result would look a lot like this one — not least because of the major role in the scandal … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Minnesota, Somalia
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Who Will Trump Fire First in 2026? Former Trump Official Sarah Isgur Weighs In
The Trump Administration’s Record & Legal Issues 0:43 – Executive Power Consolidation: Isgur identifies “vertical control over the executive branch” as both Trump’s biggest accomplishment and most troubling aspect, noting Congress has largely “went dormant.” 2:00 – The TikTok Ban … Continue reading
Posted in America, Journalism, Sex, Work
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The Somali Fraud Story In Minnesota
This story is overriding tribal bias because it has graduated from political accusation to federal forensic reality. The “culture war” version of this story is “Right-wing YouTuber films empty building.” The “bipartisan reality” version is “Progressive Attorney General and Federal … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Minnesota, Somalia
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Frontlash vs Backlash
“Frontlash” is a play on “backlash” and it refers to a pre-emptive or immediate aggressive response by institutions (media, NGOs, government) to silence or pathologize reaction against a disruptive event. Event: A terror attack or spike in crime (e.g., the … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Minnesota, Somalia
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Journalists Are No Longer Gatekeepers
Strictly speaking, Nick Shirley’s viral video provided visual evidence of physical emptiness at specific locations at specific times, but it did not forensically prove active billing fraud at those exact sites in the moment. The video proved that the doors … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Somalia
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