To clarify in case there’s any confusion, this is not a prediction of what will come to pass (I don’t make those, I’m bad at wagering), it’s an analysis of what I think billionaires broadly think of the moment and what they perceive as the purpose of media in the near future.

I wrote about the Bari Weiss take over of CBS News as part of a broader trend away from the pretense of liberal institutionalism into a genuinely post-reality tabloidism, marked by AI slop, unsophisticated Trumpian-Likudite propaganda and consolidation of traditional and social media.

In this News Brief, "IDF-Funding Mega-Billionaire Buys CBS News, Installs Bari Weiss to Enforce Ideological Discipline," we discuss the Ellisons' purchase of Paramount and the TikTok algorithm, their potential purchase of CNN, and how this will invariably incite more violence against Palestinians.

They are not but as an explanatory device for genocide “stay out of prison” is misleading and to the extent it’s true it’s only true because genocide is popular

His policies are very popular and, in key ways, are *to the left* of Israelis society. As I explained here. www.columnblog.com/p/its-not-ju...

Netanyahu didn’t do genocide in Gaza to stay out of prison, he did genocide because genocide is very popular in Israel. It’s political consensus.

Things can be meaningfully escalatory. Things are very rarely bimodal.

This is their goal at least, whether these liberal systems can sufficiently push back remains to be seen.

I think this is misreading the play, correct in spirit but not in letter. They will seek to gut liberal institutions, support system and basic GOTV thus making defeating Republicans that much more difficult but not impossible. So there’ll be voting but close races will artificially go GOP

For 2 years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, not one Palestinian voice has been featured on NBC, ABC or CNN’s Sunday shows.

@ahjohnson.bsky.social writes about how the U.S. media has debated Palestinians’ annihilation without letting a single Palestinian speak.

inthesetimes.com/article/gaza...

Please join us one week from today for a Beg-A-Thon live show @ 9:30ET/8:30CT! We will be joined by Justin Feldman
to discuss the rise of MAHA, the broader Granola-to-Fascist Pipeline and how corporate-written food policies and our shitty for-profit medical system fuel hucksterism.

I never said they were. Try reading it again

Accepting every MAGA premise on “immigration” has moral costs, but assuming they’re all Savvy Trolly Problem Knowers, they should at least acknowledge it has **political downsides as well**. That it alienates many and makes counter messaging impossible because you look like total phony hypocrites.

All I would like is an acknowledgment, at minimum, that there are TRADE OFFS and going right on “culture issues” isn’t free real estate. Setting aside the amorality of triangulation, I’m sick of everyone acting like it’s a perpetual motion machine not subject to laws of electoral thermodynamics.

One thing I’d be nice if Schatz and others acknowledged is that even judging their hard right turn on immigration in Spring 2024 on its own terms it failed miserably. In July when Harris took over Trump led on “immigration” by 9pts, by election day he led 13pts. At best it, electorally, did nothing

In Ep 229, "Sociopathic 'You Got To Hand it To 'Em' Punditry and the Rise of Politics as Sport" we detail the rise of detached "who's winning/who's losing" political analysis that reduces high stakes life and death issues to fodder for ESPN-type navel-gazing.

With guest @jackmirkinson.bsky.social

In Ep 228, "Billionaires as Insta-Experts: How Our Media Conflates Extreme Wealth with Expertise," we break down the media convention of assuming the rich are per se experts on everything from education to "the economy" to poverty in Africa when, in reality, they are Just Some Guys.

Again, who Jesus was or was not killed by has zero relation to what Carlson is doing in this clip

it doesn’t matter obviously but someone should let him know “Jews killed Jesus” is not some nuanced theological debate but the worlds oldest nazi dogwhistle and the guys cheering it on will never welcome him in their coalition no matter how much they feign to care about Palestine, which they do not

@ahjohnson.bsky.social of @citationspod.bsky.social on the White House’s weaponization of Kirk’s death and the broader rightward tilt of the media.

My guest @ahjohnson.bsky.social is brilliant in this latest episode of @theintercept.com podcast. He perfectly explains why all of these institutional pillars, including media, appear to have fallen so quickly in the wake of an obvious smear campaign.

theintercept.com/2025/09/19/b...

MAGA is swiftly channeling outrage over Kirk’s murder into efforts to attack nonprofits, discipline liberals and the Left. Democratic leadership seems uninterested in stopping them.

@ahjohnson.bsky.social explains what’s at stake and who’s failing to act.

inthesetimes.com/article/trum...

New from me. The biggest labor story in the US is happening at Microsoft. More people should be talking about it. I spoke with 5 tech workers who have all been fired for protesting Microsoft's complicity in genocide. They don't regret it & won't stop

@therealnews.com
therealnews.com/the-biggest-...

Musk has spent the past week having another Great Replacement meltdown and once again, "leading anti-hate organization" ADL has ignored his overt trafficking in antisemitic conspires because Musk toes the line on Israel. I wrote about the increasingly obvious hollowness of ADL's shakedown operation