By Howard Polskin: If the Oklahoma Bombing occurred in 2023, Jeffrey Toobin (below), author of a new book about Timothy McVeigh, says the Right would claim that foreign Islamic terrorists were somehow working with McVeigh. Toobin also makes the case that McVeigh’s transformation was shaped by the some of the same forces that brought America’s democracy to the brink of disaster on January 6, 2021.
By J. Max Robins: Here is a highly opinionated list of who stands to rise and who’s likely to stumble in the wake of Carlson’s surprising fall from Murdochian grace.
By Kevin Howley: The reasons behind the sudden ouster of the two cable news “personalities” remain unclear. But it all made for a somewhat engrossing and occasionally entertaining trip down the conservative media rabbit hole.
By Kevin Howley: Most observers were quick to condemn 21-year-old Jack Teixeira for reckless disregard of classified information. But for the MAGA faithful, who routinely dismiss Trump World’s high crimes and misdemeanors, Teixeira is nothing short of a national hero.
By David Lieberman: Winners include Smartmatic, Dominion’s PR agency and the private equity company that owns Dominion. Losers include Paul Ryan (find out why).
By Kevin Howley: There’s nothing new about Republican calls to defund the DOJ and FBI. It’s a well-worn trope in MAGA country – part of a broader linguistic strategy that appropriates words like “defund” and “woke” used by activists and academics to capture forthright criticism of a fundamentally flawed criminal justice system predicated on white nationalism.
By Kevin Howley: Mainstream media coverage of the expulsion of two of the three Tennessee lawmakers, both young African-American men, is largely sympathetic. Predictably, right wing lawmakers (sic) and their media enablers have a noxious, NRA-worthy perspective teeming with false equivalence and racial animus.
By David Lieberman: Cinemark’s Trump-supporting chairman has resigned, but don’t expect the major exhibition company to change its political direction. Also: our Right Wing Biz Watch columnist looks at the problems at Truth Social and Rumble’s prospects for next year.
By Jaden Satenstein: According to right-wing media, American education is a liberal brainwashing machine, and DeSantis is the hero coming to rescue our kids.
By Michael Lovito: Widespread acceptance of Pride events among NHL players is a signal that things are slowly changing. (Image: Pixabay)
By Jaden Satenstein: High-profile lawyer, writer and Democratic campaign manager Susan Estrich didn’t know that the popular right-wing news outlet Newsmax was publishing her syndicated column. Then she started getting email from readers calling her a “stupid liberal.”
By Denise Brogan-Kator: I believe it is especially important at this time in our struggle to be part of the American story to counter the negative and destructive narrative that some legislators and far right commentators have been spinning out these past several months.
For the debut edition of our ongoing feature, columnist David Lieberman looks at radio giant iHeart Media’s controversial choice of election denier Tudor Dixon as its latest talk show talent. Lieberman also unpacks Truth Social’s rocky finances and the big paydays for Salem executives while shareholder value tanked.
By Howard Polskin: Truth Social appears stuck in rut bigger than a Trump International sand trap. Since launching a little more than a year ago, the conservative-friendly social media platform has barely grown its audience, according to our exclusive research based on Comscore data.
By Kevin Howley: Like any serviceable wingnut conspiracy, the antiwoke crusade neatly accounts for recent calamities, while presciently anticipating every eventuality. (Image: Pixabay)
By J. Max Robins: Rupert Murdoch has a history of dictatorially jettisoning his most potent Fox News stars when they become liabilities. That’s what happened with Glenn Beck when he sailed off the reality rails with his rallies and proto-QAnon conspiracy mongering. Likewise, Bill O’Reilly, when he got caught up in multiple sex scandals. (Image: Flickr)
By Michael Lovito: Vibrant in illustration but crude in content, what cartoonist George Alexopoulos describes as his “current events strips” take aim at the abortion rights movement, the LGBTQ community, vaccine mandates, and even progressive trends in the comics industry with a vicious, spiteful tone that aims to provoke.
By Kevin Howley: His brand of extremism is genuinely disturbing. The Florida governor has made no secret of his capacity for crass opportunism, press intimidation, and political payback. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
By David Andrew Stoler: Thirty-three-year-old Michael Knowles is going to play the role as written, and right now the Right demands outrage from its podcast hosts. Knowles is so good at it, one can’t help but wonder if he’s got his eyes on a bigger prize: that of public office. (Image: Flickr)
By Jaden Satenstein: Since losing her reelection campaign last month, Chicago’s mayor has been a target of right wing media looking to tear down a Black gay woman. Powerful Black women like Lori Lightfoot represent a direct threat to the systemic and structural forms of racism that right wing media uphold, and scorn is the only way they know to strike back. (Image: Flickr)
By David Lieberman: Salem shares fell more than 22 percent March 10 after it warned that revenues in the current quarter could decline from the same period in 2022. Despite its relatively small size, the publicly traded company offers one of the clearest insights into the financial health of right-wing media.
By J. Max Robins: Want a weekly sampling of vintage Tucker Carlson nationalist whines, without having to hate-watch his Fox News gabfest? Then let 23-year-old Kat Abughazaleh be your ultra-right-media sommelier.
By Kevin Howley: Of all her stunts, provocations and protestations, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Presidents’ Day call for a national divorce is the most insidious.
