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Richard Tofel

@dicktofel.bsky.social

3K followers 240 following 710 posts

now consulting at Gallatin Advisory, instructor @HarvardChanSPH, author of Second Rough Draft on Substack; former president of ProPublica

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 12h

Why protecting free speech and a free press is most importantly a question of what we value. This week’s Second Rough Draft newsletter

open.substack.com/pub/dicktofe...

Freedom of the Press Isn’t Just a Legal Issue

Why constitutional values are even more important than case law

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Richard Tofel

New York Focus @nysfocus.bsky.social · 10h

NEW: A surprise move by the Trump administration could result in hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers losing their food assistance benefits as soon as November — disrupting one of the country’s oldest safety net programs months earlier than expected. nysfocus.com/2025/10/09/t...

Surprise Trump Move Will Upend New York Food Stamps

New York counties thought they had months to prepare to implement SNAP work requirements. Now, they have weeks.

nysfocus.com

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Reposted by Richard Tofel

Tim Karr @timkarr.bsky.social · 10h

In his new substack, @dicktofel.bsky.social believes the entire White House press corps "should have refused to go places from which AP was banned."

"It is a sorry statement that our nation’s TV comics have shown more solidarity in the face of Trump’s censorship than have its leading newspapers."

Freedom of the Press Isn’t Just a Legal Issue

Why constitutional values are even more important than case law

dicktofel.substack.com

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Reposted by Richard Tofel

John Q. Barrett @johnqbarrett.bsky.social · 10h

An important @dicktofel.bsky.social reminder that U.S. constitutional law is the U.S. people—it is the law that is constitutive of us. So don’t expect courts to “save” us from ourselves. Do stand for right values (such as press freedom), moral substance, and making better choices.

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 12h

Why protecting free speech and a free press is most importantly a question of what we value. This week’s Second Rough Draft newsletter

open.substack.com/pub/dicktofe...

Freedom of the Press Isn’t Just a Legal Issue

Why constitutional values are even more important than case law

open.substack.com

1 2

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 12h

Why protecting free speech and a free press is most importantly a question of what we value. This week’s Second Rough Draft newsletter

open.substack.com/pub/dicktofe...

Freedom of the Press Isn’t Just a Legal Issue

Why constitutional values are even more important than case law

open.substack.com

1 1

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 3d

Re-upping this as Bari Weiss, with experience only as an opinion journalist, becomes editor-in-chief of CBS News
dicktofel.substack.com/p/cbs-news-a...

CBS News and the First Moves of its Nepo Baby Owner

Learning about the limits of billionaires

dicktofel.substack.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 4d

Aaron Judge batting .444 in the postseason, with an OPS over 1, and almost identical to his career regular season OPS.
It isn’t his fault.

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 7d

In which a Wall Street Journal columnist explains why the economic approaches of Trump and Mamdani are actually similar.

www.wsj.com/economy/trum...

Trump Keeps Blurring the Line Between Capitalism and Socialism

The president’s plans on drug pricing echo themes of Zohran Mamdani, democratic socialist running for mayor of New York.

www.wsj.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 9d

Update: NPR request for TRO denied

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 10d

New edit page editor of WaPo says the quiet part out loud: the paper’s readers are “overwhelmingly liberal” and “overwhelmingly located in just a few blue states.”
He’s not interested in those who subscribed as a form of protest and looking to broaden readership.

www.foxnews.com/media/editor...

Editorial overhaul: Washington Post's new opinion chief feels the weight of the challenges ahead

The Washington Post's new opinion editor Adam O'Neal spoke with Fox News Digital about the challenges he faces as he reshapes the paper's editorial pages.

www.foxnews.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 11d

How far have the football Giants fallen? Albany TV is showing Buffalo (more than twice as far away) game instead.

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 11d

Helpful antidote from Nikole Hannah-Jones to the normalizing of Charlie Kirk’s most repulsive views, including a devastating subtweet of Ezra Klein
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/m...

What the Public Memory of Charlie Kirk Revealed

www.nytimes.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 12d

The fight here is more nearly between NPR and some of its leading member stations, more than with CPB (which is going out of business).
Key: “privately executives for CPB and PBS distanced themselves from NPR and Maher.”
www.npr.org/2025/09/27/n...

NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting clash as federal funding declines

NPR asked a federal judge to block CPB from awarding a $57.9 million grant to a new consortium of public media institutions to operate the satellite that connects the public radio system.

www.npr.org

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 12d

Naming a museum of capitalism after Mike Milken is like naming a museum of literature after Clifford Irving, or an art museum after Elmyr de Hory
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/b...

On Pennsylvania Ave., Michael Milken’s Curious Temple to the American Dream

www.nytimes.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 13d

Was happy to talk to @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social about Trump’s crony capitalism
www.npr.org/2025/09/26/g...

Trump's TikTok deal payment criticized as 'shakedown scheme' by experts

The U.S. government will collect a multibillion-dollar fee from the American investors who will take over TikTok. Some experts call the fee and other deals like it "extortion."

www.npr.org

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 13d

Whatever any of us may think of how Jim Comey handled things in October 2016, I have known him for 40 years and he would never have lied to or obstructed Congress.
These charges are a disgrace to our nation and a fundamental attack on the rule of law.

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Reposted by Richard Tofel

Edwin Eisendrath @eisendrath.net · 14d

Two guys who both ran news organizations but aren’t journalists, share our respect for great reporting and talk about the world we’re in right now. I hope you'll listen to my conversation with @dicktofel.bsky.social.
open.substack.com/pub/edwineis...

American journalism and America's news consumption are out of sync
In this dangerous moment of unprecedented government censorship and propaganda we need to think differently about how to connect news consumers to the news and information they need

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 14d

We hear a lot about how people get news these days, but we need to take the changes more seriously— and to do things about it. This week’s Second Rough Draft newsletter

open.substack.com/pub/dicktofe...

We Need to Think Differently About How People Get “News”

On changing ideas about competitive sets, and a case for much greater customization

open.substack.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 15d

4 50-home run seasons without steroids:
Babe Ruth
Aaron Judge
nobody else
2 50-home run seasons after age 30 without steroids:
Babe Ruth
Aaron Judge
nobody else

Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 16d

In considering anyone’s demands that someone donate to Charlie Kirk’s organization, remember that Kirk repeatedly insisted that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should never have been passed, and that Martin Luther King Jr was unworthy of honor. There is more, but that seems like enough.

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Reposted by Richard Tofel

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 17d

That is not a denial.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 17d

Ingraham: They said you took $50,000 in cash in a bag from an undercover FBI agent…

Homan: I did nothing criminal or illegal.

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 17d

Remember Trump’s first term surgeon general? He just posted this on the other place, “ICYMI”
www.autismspeaks.org/science-news...

www.autismspeaks.org

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 17d

This is an outrage— Hegseth forbidding the reporting of admittedly unclassified info without his permission.
But I am not sure it is or should be framed as a legal problem. Could it be time for the independent press to pull its reporters and cameras out of the Pentagon unless this move is withdrawn?

Dan Lamothe @danlamothe.bsky.social · 19d

New statement from The Post on Pete Hegseth’s new crackdown on the press at the Pentagon:

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 18d

I agree that it is important to remember Charlie Kirk.
He deserved to live. I am very sorry he was killed, and mourn for his family.
If you want to remember him also for his views, here is one sampling:
youtube.com/watch?v=6oVc...

Charlie Kirk in his own words. We Report. You Decide.

YouTube video by The Seneca Project

youtube.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 18d

Devastating, detailed review of the interlocking corruption of Eric Adams and Donald Trump
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

Opinion | Eric Adams, Donald Trump and the Case That Broke American Justice

www.nytimes.com

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Richard Tofel @dicktofel.bsky.social · 19d

Breaking: the FBI filmed Trump’s border czar accepting $50,000 in cash to help get federal contracts.
Kash Patel dropped the case.

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.

The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.

www.msnbc.com

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