Doug Pennington
@morfaleji.bsky.social
Husband. Flack. Principal Consultant, Morphology Media Relations LLC. Pirkei Avot 2:21. #unionmember. DC via Cincinnati. @morfaleji most places. Skeets gone after about a month (or less)
Reposted by Doug Pennington
An editor who thinks novelty is having a town hall with Alan Dershowitz, or publishing the thousandth anti-woke story, doesn’t think having first hand testimony of migrants suffering abuse because of US decisions is newsworthy.
Bari Weiss, cont'd: "I held that story because it wasn't ready. The story presented very powerful testimony of abuse in CECOT, but that testimony has already been reported... The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment in this prison... we simply need to do more."
December 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
An editor who thinks novelty is having a town hall with Alan Dershowitz, or publishing the thousandth anti-woke story, doesn’t think having first hand testimony of migrants suffering abuse because of US decisions is newsworthy.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
CBS News EIC Bari Weiss had concerns about the CECOT piece, I’m told. The network decided to hold the segment pending, among other things, comment or an interview with White House officials next year…
December 22, 2025 at 2:22 AM
CBS News EIC Bari Weiss had concerns about the CECOT piece, I’m told. The network decided to hold the segment pending, among other things, comment or an interview with White House officials next year…
Reposted by Doug Pennington
It got Bari’d.
CBS News EIC Bari Weiss had concerns about the CECOT piece, I’m told. The network decided to hold the segment pending, among other things, comment or an interview with White House officials next year…
An Editor’s Note from 60 Minutes
December 22, 2025 at 2:23 AM
It got Bari’d.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
What once was largely limited to Stormfront and the fever swamps of the internet just a few years ago is now accepted discourse from the White House.
JD Vance: "In the United States of America you don't have to apologize for being white anymore"
December 22, 2025 at 12:04 AM
What once was largely limited to Stormfront and the fever swamps of the internet just a few years ago is now accepted discourse from the White House.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
thinking for no reason at all about my very first job, which was at a censored newspaper in Myanmar and seemed very distant from my life and my country
CBS News postponed a "60 Minutes" segment Sunday because it lacked a Trump admin interview, per an email we obtained from correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who said the decision by EIC Bari Weiss gave the White House a "kill switch." with @liamjscott.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
‘60 Minutes’ correspondent says CBS’s Bari Weiss abruptly pulled segment on Trump deportations
CBS News pulled a ‘60 Minutes’ segment about a prison in El Salvador one day before it was set to air because the Trump administration declined to participate.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:00 AM
thinking for no reason at all about my very first job, which was at a censored newspaper in Myanmar and seemed very distant from my life and my country
Reposted by Doug Pennington
Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…
December 22, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…
Reposted by Doug Pennington
And there it is...
December 22, 2025 at 2:55 AM
And there it is...
Reposted by Doug Pennington
Some of the best (I think) material in Five Came Back is there because a librarian saw what I was working on over 3 days and asked me if I'd like to take a look at a box of old George Stevens papers that had not been catalogued yet. So no, for a ton of reasons, AI cannot "do the research for you."
December 22, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Some of the best (I think) material in Five Came Back is there because a librarian saw what I was working on over 3 days and asked me if I'd like to take a look at a box of old George Stevens papers that had not been catalogued yet. So no, for a ton of reasons, AI cannot "do the research for you."
Reposted by Doug Pennington
When the details of CBS pulling that segment comes out the story’s really gonna blow up and it’ll be much more damaging for MAGA than airing it woulda been. Controlling CBS would be so valuable if they could just maintain its credibility.
December 22, 2025 at 1:26 AM
When the details of CBS pulling that segment comes out the story’s really gonna blow up and it’ll be much more damaging for MAGA than airing it woulda been. Controlling CBS would be so valuable if they could just maintain its credibility.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
Perhaps we should film a debate between a concentration camp guard and an abandoned toilet over whether CECOT is good. Brought to you by Bank of America.
December 21, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Perhaps we should film a debate between a concentration camp guard and an abandoned toilet over whether CECOT is good. Brought to you by Bank of America.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
Surviving CECOT (full documentary) | Deported to a Maximum-Security Prison | FRONTLINE + ProPublica
YouTube video by FRONTLINE PBS | Official
m.youtube.com
December 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
Putting in the f*cking _work_
How do historians process that kind of material? Well, I read it all. I learned how to recognize the handwriting of every family member (40 cousins in one generation) and other correspondents. I learned how to skim. And then I transcribed 2000+ letters that I needed more time to analyze.
December 22, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Putting in the f*cking _work_
Reposted by Doug Pennington
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
I wish we pushed for research on the political economy of academia more. It's what takes us beyond "oh why did this one person cite a fake journal article?" into "why do we have a system that rewards people who do not engage with prior research and simply churn out pubs?"
December 21, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I wish we pushed for research on the political economy of academia more. It's what takes us beyond "oh why did this one person cite a fake journal article?" into "why do we have a system that rewards people who do not engage with prior research and simply churn out pubs?"
Reposted by Doug Pennington
This is a dumbfounding guideline. Absolutely a destructive and incompetent recommendation that was clearly made by people not qualified to judge such decisions.
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
December 20, 2025 at 5:10 PM
This is a dumbfounding guideline. Absolutely a destructive and incompetent recommendation that was clearly made by people not qualified to judge such decisions.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
In the summer of 1950 most US newspapers ran an AP story about how race had become the main issue in the upcoming Georgia governor's race. Segregationist Herman Tallmadge, governor from '47 to '55 and then a Senator until 1981 made a name for himself by refusing to "apologize for being a white man."
December 21, 2025 at 10:57 PM
In the summer of 1950 most US newspapers ran an AP story about how race had become the main issue in the upcoming Georgia governor's race. Segregationist Herman Tallmadge, governor from '47 to '55 and then a Senator until 1981 made a name for himself by refusing to "apologize for being a white man."
Reposted by Doug Pennington
Streisand effecting the heck out of CECOT
All of these links went to promotion of this story earlier today. All these links are dead now — that's how thoroughly they've scrubbed this.
December 21, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Streisand effecting the heck out of CECOT
Reposted by Doug Pennington
An immigrant works a dangerous job to protect Americans. It puts him in medical debt. Now he also has to worry about being deported by ICE when he goes to work or takes his kid to a soccer tournament.
Feel safer?
Feel safer?
December 21, 2025 at 3:29 PM
An immigrant works a dangerous job to protect Americans. It puts him in medical debt. Now he also has to worry about being deported by ICE when he goes to work or takes his kid to a soccer tournament.
Feel safer?
Feel safer?
Reposted by Doug Pennington
I find myself thinking about historian Robert Paxton’s 2004 definition of fascism far too often than I’d like these days. Note that these sentences were written back when Donald Trump was a NYC playboy libertine who donated to Democrats.
December 21, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Doug Pennington
As an undergrad, I learned that re-checking all sources (primary and secondary) is non-negotiable. Scholarship takes time. But the complete monetization of higher education incentivizes speed and quantity (not to be mistaken for actual productivity, let alone quality), which results in this mess. 🗃
Google scholar is now broken for good because people use AI-generated, non-existent references.
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
And so checked out Google Scholar. Now on my profile it doesn't appear, but somwhow on Nelli's it does and ... and ... omg, IT'S BEEN CITED 42 TIMES almost exlusively in papers about AI in education from this year alone... scholar.google.com.vn/citations?vi...
December 21, 2025 at 10:02 AM
As an undergrad, I learned that re-checking all sources (primary and secondary) is non-negotiable. Scholarship takes time. But the complete monetization of higher education incentivizes speed and quantity (not to be mistaken for actual productivity, let alone quality), which results in this mess. 🗃
Reposted by Doug Pennington
Jim Beam Whiskey will shut its distillery for 2026 thanks to plummeting sales amid retaliatory tariffs from the European Union after Trump's tariffs and a bourbon boycott from Canada.
www.kentucky.com/news/busines...
www.kentucky.com/news/busines...
Major Kentucky bourbon maker Jim Beam shuttering distillery for 2026
The move comes as Kentucky’s $9 billion bourbon industry is dealing with a glut of supply and slipping sales.
www.kentucky.com
December 21, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Jim Beam Whiskey will shut its distillery for 2026 thanks to plummeting sales amid retaliatory tariffs from the European Union after Trump's tariffs and a bourbon boycott from Canada.
www.kentucky.com/news/busines...
www.kentucky.com/news/busines...
Reposted by Doug Pennington
They booked a bunch of 14 year old models to come to a Mar A Lago party, told them to dress sexy and tried to ply them with alcohol.
These are the people who are willing to go on the record.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
December 18, 2025 at 5:58 PM
They booked a bunch of 14 year old models to come to a Mar A Lago party, told them to dress sexy and tried to ply them with alcohol.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
What if Mar-a-Lago was the real Comet Pizza basement all along?
They booked a bunch of 14 year old models to come to a Mar A Lago party, told them to dress sexy and tried to ply them with alcohol.
These are the people who are willing to go on the record.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
December 18, 2025 at 10:50 PM
What if Mar-a-Lago was the real Comet Pizza basement all along?
Reposted by Doug Pennington
Logan Paul and Andrew Tate both wrecked within hours of each other.
The light is beginning to return.
The light is beginning to return.
🚨 Andrew Tate has been BATTERED and comprehensively beaten by a novice boxer, Chase DeMoor
December 21, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Logan Paul and Andrew Tate both wrecked within hours of each other.
The light is beginning to return.
The light is beginning to return.
Reposted by Doug Pennington
I am at most 15% kidding when I say that one of Jake Paul’s opponents finally turning down the money to take a dive for the chance to send his jaw 180° like Daffy Duck’s beak when Elmer shoots him is one of the strongest vibe shift indicators yet.
December 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM
I am at most 15% kidding when I say that one of Jake Paul’s opponents finally turning down the money to take a dive for the chance to send his jaw 180° like Daffy Duck’s beak when Elmer shoots him is one of the strongest vibe shift indicators yet.