Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 12h

The Lever's subscriptions are up 22 PERCENT in the last 90 days.

My sense is a media breaking point is upon us, people feel like they're drowning in bad hot takes & they're now seeking out accountability journalism - which is good.

Subscribe here - and please share👇

Subscribe to The Lever, Support Investigative Journalism

Supporting subscriptions grant you complete access to our entire website and all content for just $10 per month, or $100 per year.

LeverNews.com

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 20h

My take on Bari Weiss is that she succeeded in doing something hard: standing up an independent outlet.

I also think her outlet mostly does cynical culture-war hot takes designed to distract from the economic class war - which is why it attracted oligarch boosters who financially guarantee success.

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 1d

Look, we've all had the occasional bad take. But at what point does a pundit with permanent employment in elite media get stripped of his status as a "political expert" who anyone should listen to about what's actually happening in America?

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Reposted by David Sirota

Natalie Bettendorf @natalierbett.bsky.social · 2d

Over at @levernews.com, we investigated how one-stop real estate shops like Zillow and Redfin may actually be hurting homebuyers – and the U.S. economy.

For today's Lever Time episode, I spoke with @helenwsantoro.bsky.social about what her reporting uncovered: www.levernews.com/the-zillow-a...

The Zillow And Redfin Convenience Trap

Buying a home has never been easier — so what’s the catch?

www.levernews.com

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 2d

This was supposed to be a joke. Now it seems like a prophecy.

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 3d

This is the best analysis of news media and social media I've read in a long time - with some very good news for the relatively few news outlets taking the much harder path of building subscription businesses instead of attention businesses (yes, there is a big difference).

The Desire Distribution

Substack’s revenue curve, the end of the winner-take-all media markets, and the cleansing power of money.

components.news

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Reposted by David Sirota

David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

The Lever's subscriptions are up a whopping 21 PERCENT in the last 90 days, driven by our big stories & by Lever Daily - our once-a-day newsletter filled with original reporting & scoops. Our readers love it.

Subscribe for free - and pass it on: LeverNews.com/Daily

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 3d

NEWS: In a case with national implications, @governorwalz.mn.gov's officials are approving Blackrock's takeover of one of the Midwest’s largest utilities.

Critics say the precedent-setting move paves the way for more Wall Street firms to buy utilities to further hike skyrocketing electricity rates.

Wall Street’s Bid For Your Power

Regulators just greenlit BlackRock’s acquisition of a Midwestern power company — the latest deal in the private equity giant’s spending spree on public infrastructure.

www.levernews.com

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

The Lever's subscriptions are up a whopping 21 PERCENT in the last 90 days, driven by our big stories & by Lever Daily - our once-a-day newsletter filled with original reporting & scoops. Our readers love it.

Subscribe for free - and pass it on: LeverNews.com/Daily

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

nice

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

The Ezra/Ta-Nehisi thing was textbook brand management.

Ezra got rightly dunked on in Vanity Fair by a writer who his own audience loves, so Ezra brought him on the pod to reassure listeners that the writer still likes him & sends him nice texts.

It was shrewd crisis comms 101.

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

I'm so desperate for anything distracting and fun and good and pure - and I'm hanging on by such a thin emotional thread - that I'm unreasonably euphoric about an NBA *preseason* game tomorrow night

How to watch or listen as Timberwolves tip off preseason in San Diego

The Timberwolves begin their six-game preseason schedule against the Nuggets in Southern California.

www.si.com

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

🚨If you think the Bari Weiss/CBS News thing is new, here's a never-before-seen document showing CBS's president boasting about enforcing the far-right Powell Memo to ideologically "correct the situation at CBS News."

This document is from our upcoming new book - pass it on: LeverNews.com/book

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

NEWS: The Lever reported on Trump's authoritarian moves.

For that thoughtcrime, we were threatened by a private group that helps ad giants & Big Tech identify which news outlets to target for blacklisting (read: shadowbanning & defunding).

Subscribe to help us do more: LeverNews.com/subscribe

Reporting Reality? That’s Partisan Now

For reporting on Trump’s authoritarian tendencies and the master plan to sell our democracy, NewsGuard’s media rating system has deemed us misleadingly liberal.

www.levernews.com

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 4d

Why is every company now trying to be your bank?

Hint: It's not about making stuff "frictionless" for you, as they claim.

It's about squeezing profit out of you & putting you into permanent debt.

What stage of capitalism is this?

www.levernews.com/bankificatio...

Bankification Nation

From tech giants to airlines to health care providers, every company is becoming a bank — and that’s bad news for the rest of us.

www.levernews.com

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 5d

Consider the possibility that this person is not actually a "free speech absolutist" as he claims - and he's just angry at literally any information conduits that are not controlled and monetized by his social media algorithm...

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

🎧LEVER TIME: A new White House memo could aim the government's post-9/11 anti-terrorism machine at Americans who criticize the Trump administration - and congressional Democrats are silent.

Search "Lever Time" in your podcast app for the episode.

www.levernews.com/are-you-on-t...

Are You On The FBI’s New Watch List?

A new White House memorandum activates 9/11 counterterrorism units against the American public.

www.levernews.com

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Reposted by David Sirota

David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

seems incredibly bad tbh

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

seems incredibly bad tbh

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

I saw this on the other site. The community note here is almost funny — oh OK, so a gas system installed by an expert exploded, so what? That means we shouldn’t make sure other gas systems are installed by experts? That’s one hell of a dystopian argument!

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

These headlines are a few hours apart.

Abundance!

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

Real estate moguls & landlords have been slamming NYC lawmakers for requiring gas appliances be installed by master plumbers who actually know how to deal with that kind of dangerous equipment.

Literally days later, a gas explosion today just partially collapsed a massive NY apartment building.

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

That fealty is what short-circuited any chance for real change inside the party.

But it appears that fealty is gone, and Democratic voters are rightly mad. That’s huge vibe shift, offering the very rare chance for a real shift.

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

18 years ago, I wrote a book called THE UPRISING which posited that 2008 could be the moment for such a takeover. But what I didn’t anticipate Democratic voters continuing to worship their party’s leaders at that time.

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 6d

These new poll numbers are the best political news I’ve seen in a while. Dem voters are now as mad at their party leaders as GOP voters were mad at their party’s leaders before Trump took over the GOP.

In short, these are the exactly conditions for a long-overdue takeover of the Democratic Party.

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