A.J. Bauer
@ajbauer.bsky.social
Researching conservative news and right-wing media. PhD in American Studies from NYU. I teach at but don't speak for the University of Alabama.
News on the Right (http://bit.ly/2YgUcZX).
Pre-order *Making the Liberal Media* (https://shorturl.at/e31nU)!
News on the Right (http://bit.ly/2YgUcZX).
Pre-order *Making the Liberal Media* (https://shorturl.at/e31nU)!
Pinned
A.J. Bauer
@ajbauer.bsky.social
· Dec 10
Making the Liberal Media | Columbia University Press
Conservatives have disagreed about many things, but they have long been united by the belief that the mainstream—or “liberal”—media is biased against... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
You can now pre-order my book, Making the Liberal Media, directly from Columbia University Press!
Use the discount code CUP20 and save $7!
cup.columbia.edu/book/making-...
Use the discount code CUP20 and save $7!
cup.columbia.edu/book/making-...
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
The New York Times reports that a group of “scientific” racists misused National Institute of Health data (that families were assured would be protected) to write bogus papers on supposed to biological racial differences. Gift link.
Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’
www.nytimes.com
January 24, 2026 at 3:15 PM
The New York Times reports that a group of “scientific” racists misused National Institute of Health data (that families were assured would be protected) to write bogus papers on supposed to biological racial differences. Gift link.
A lot of people were fired and even more were scared into varying degrees of self-censorship. Young conservatives remain mobilized.
You have to be painfully online to believe that Kirk’s legacy is reducible to shitposting memes and AI slop.
You have to be painfully online to believe that Kirk’s legacy is reducible to shitposting memes and AI slop.
books about this era are going to heavily feature the failed Horst Wesseling of Kirk. it was the first place where the regime wanted something, got elite buy-in, and it blew up in their face
just thinking again about how MAGA’s attempt to suppress all criticism of Charlie Kirk created a backlash so intense that he is now probably the most abjectly Internet-defiled person in human history
January 23, 2026 at 3:38 AM
A lot of people were fired and even more were scared into varying degrees of self-censorship. Young conservatives remain mobilized.
You have to be painfully online to believe that Kirk’s legacy is reducible to shitposting memes and AI slop.
You have to be painfully online to believe that Kirk’s legacy is reducible to shitposting memes and AI slop.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
I gave a second interview with the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) about why the right is attempting to shut down NPR and PBS, and how rural station closures will affect democratic discourse. Thanks to the excellent Lucy Schiller.
The NPR and Colorado stations that took Trump to court.
“It isn’t just an affront to localism. It’s an attempt to reengineer thought.”
www.cjr.org
January 21, 2026 at 3:27 PM
I gave a second interview with the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) about why the right is attempting to shut down NPR and PBS, and how rural station closures will affect democratic discourse. Thanks to the excellent Lucy Schiller.
Two weeks? But that’s supposed to be infrastructure week!
January 23, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Two weeks? But that’s supposed to be infrastructure week!
The borgs are back in town.
January 23, 2026 at 12:52 AM
The borgs are back in town.
The idea of a "responsible conservatism" was always an op to get journalists and liberals to take right-wingers and their ideas seriously.
Today's factoid from the history of US fascism: the guy who hatched the idea to publish Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative in 1960 (the ur-text of US conservatism) was Leo Reardon. In the 1930s Reardon was Father Coughlin's manager & he'd traveled to Nazi Germany as Coughlin's representative.
January 22, 2026 at 11:47 PM
The idea of a "responsible conservatism" was always an op to get journalists and liberals to take right-wingers and their ideas seriously.
I thought tent encampments were a threat to the educational mission of a university?
January 22, 2026 at 11:31 PM
I thought tent encampments were a threat to the educational mission of a university?
Still haunted that we never got closure on the Cinnamon Toast Shrimp saga.
January 22, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Still haunted that we never got closure on the Cinnamon Toast Shrimp saga.
Tag yourself.
I can't decide whether I'm Gorka on trumpet, Jared Kushner on French horn, or Roger Stone on the bass...
I can't decide whether I'm Gorka on trumpet, Jared Kushner on French horn, or Roger Stone on the bass...
January 22, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Tag yourself.
I can't decide whether I'm Gorka on trumpet, Jared Kushner on French horn, or Roger Stone on the bass...
I can't decide whether I'm Gorka on trumpet, Jared Kushner on French horn, or Roger Stone on the bass...
I earnestly can’t wait to read Marco Rubio’s memoir of this era.
January 22, 2026 at 4:23 AM
I earnestly can’t wait to read Marco Rubio’s memoir of this era.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
A 5-year-old preschool student was taken with his father by federal immigration agents shortly after arriving home from school, Columbia Heights school leaders said Jan. 21.
Preschooler and three other students detained by ICE, school district leader says
The detentions of Columbia Heights students come after weeks of heightened concern and enforcement presence near and on Twin Cities school property.
bit.ly
January 22, 2026 at 12:50 AM
A 5-year-old preschool student was taken with his father by federal immigration agents shortly after arriving home from school, Columbia Heights school leaders said Jan. 21.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
Breaking WaPo:
The recent death of a detainee at an immigrant detention camp in Texas has been officially deemed a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner.
The recent death of a detainee at an immigrant detention camp in Texas has been officially deemed a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner.
Autopsy report classifies ICE detainee’s death as a homicide
The report deeming an ICE detainee’s death in Texas a homicide comes the same day that a federal judge temporarily barred the deportation of two witnesses.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:55 AM
Breaking WaPo:
The recent death of a detainee at an immigrant detention camp in Texas has been officially deemed a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner.
The recent death of a detainee at an immigrant detention camp in Texas has been officially deemed a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
This is tyranny
at the chaotic aftermath of yet another apprehension on the streets of Minneapolis by federal agents. they left the car in the middle of the street with all of the person’s belongings inside.
January 22, 2026 at 12:59 AM
This is tyranny
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
Minnesota: "School officials say the [5-year-old] child was used as bait. They say [ICE] agents made little Liam knock on the door to ask to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home."
January 22, 2026 at 12:05 AM
Minnesota: "School officials say the [5-year-old] child was used as bait. They say [ICE] agents made little Liam knock on the door to ask to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home."
Counterpoint: Yes, and.
Abstain AND demand ownership and control (so that we can shut it down).
Abstain AND demand ownership and control (so that we can shut it down).
AI sits in billions of phones. Refusing to engage won't stop it, just leaves vulnerable people without knowledge. Demand ownership and control, not abstinence.
Abstinence From AI Is Not the Answer
Opinion | Refusing to use AI won’t protect society. Responsible resistance must include gaining knowledge about it.
f.mtr.cool
January 20, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Counterpoint: Yes, and.
Abstain AND demand ownership and control (so that we can shut it down).
Abstain AND demand ownership and control (so that we can shut it down).
Trump is now calling Renee Good's killing "tragic" because someone told him her father is a Trump fan. What depravity.
January 20, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Trump is now calling Renee Good's killing "tragic" because someone told him her father is a Trump fan. What depravity.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.
ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment
ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months
popular.info
January 20, 2026 at 1:47 PM
I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
"Aymar Jèan Escoffery is one of the most important thinkers and creators of our time. [Reparative Media] is the roadmap we need to repair from the deep divisions the internet has created among us." — @safiyanoble.bsky.social
Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255326...
Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255326...
January 13, 2026 at 7:28 PM
"Aymar Jèan Escoffery is one of the most important thinkers and creators of our time. [Reparative Media] is the roadmap we need to repair from the deep divisions the internet has created among us." — @safiyanoble.bsky.social
Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255326...
Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255326...
One answer: Journalists have internalized conservative claims of media bias. They are so afraid of appearing liberal that they over-correct, giving bad faith actors on the right the benefit of the doubt and adopting their frames.
“I sometimes wonder why journalists are so nice to the people who want to destroy them.”
My free Stop the Presses newsletter.
My free Stop the Presses newsletter.
Fascists are at war with journalism. Why aren’t journalists at war with fascism?
Mainstream media seem willing to drop their duty in order to pick up profits
www.stopthepresses.news
January 20, 2026 at 6:08 PM
One answer: Journalists have internalized conservative claims of media bias. They are so afraid of appearing liberal that they over-correct, giving bad faith actors on the right the benefit of the doubt and adopting their frames.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
“I sometimes wonder why journalists are so nice to the people who want to destroy them.”
My free Stop the Presses newsletter.
My free Stop the Presses newsletter.
Fascists are at war with journalism. Why aren’t journalists at war with fascism?
Mainstream media seem willing to drop their duty in order to pick up profits
www.stopthepresses.news
January 20, 2026 at 5:49 PM
“I sometimes wonder why journalists are so nice to the people who want to destroy them.”
My free Stop the Presses newsletter.
My free Stop the Presses newsletter.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
I am begging people to just imagine for a second talking as if the lives of the people in Greenland are an important part of what is happening in Greenland.
We are watching one of the wildest things a nation-state has ever done: A superpower is committing suicide because the GOP Congress is too cowardly to stand up to the Mad King.
This is one of the wildest moments in all of geopolitics ever.
This is one of the wildest moments in all of geopolitics ever.
Footage shows Danish troops arriving in Greenland as part of a new military deployment. Among the personnel who landed on the island is Major General Peter H. Boysen, Chief of the Danish Army Command. #Greenland
January 19, 2026 at 11:21 PM
I am begging people to just imagine for a second talking as if the lives of the people in Greenland are an important part of what is happening in Greenland.
Reposted by A.J. Bauer
Bari Weiss is the symptom: defector.com/bari-weiss-i...
Bari Weiss Is The Symptom | Defector
Who says Bari Weiss doesn’t know how to run a newsroom? “My general view here,” the CBS News editor-in-chief wrote in a memo before shelving the now-infamous 60 Minutes report on El Salvador’s CECOT…
defector.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Bari Weiss is the symptom: defector.com/bari-weiss-i...