mediacriticism
A consensus is swiftly forming among Republican politicians, activists, and media figures that the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump can be blamed on the heated, occasionally violent anti-Trump rhetoric deployed by President Joe Biden, leading Democrats, and mainstream media pundits. This is a deeply cynical and misguided tactic—and Republicans are well aware of it, since they have rightly criticized their political opponents for doing the exact same thing. "Today is not just some isolated incident," wrote Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio), Trump's pick for vice president, on X (...
Reason
For a brief moment, speculation that COVID-19 originated in a lab had been upgraded in the discourse from a conspiracy theory to a serious possibility worthy of serious inquiry. No longer. In an op-ed published in STAT on Tuesday, AIDS activist Peter Staley bemoans the "witch hunt" being carried out by an"anti-science mob" against EcoHealth Alliance—the New York-based nonprofit that had been using federal funds to do gain-of-function work on potential pandemic pathogens at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. EcoHealth has been the subject of immense, bipartisan controversy in recent mont...
Reason
My first ever job in journalism was at something called Hollywood Crush, a young Hollywood news and gossip site that was part of the larger MTV News ecosystem. Although the MTV brand still had a certain cool-kid cachet, left over from a time before it became associated primarily with teen reality shows, I was not exactly pounding the pavement for the groundbreaking stories that would change the world. By the time I left—laid off in one of those periodic mass purges that were as much a hallmark of 2010s journalism as the Buzzfeed-style listicle—my greatest contribution to the discourse was a we...
Reason
One of my favorite memes on X this week showed two photographs—one of war and devastation and the other of a neat tree-lined street with middle-class suburban houses. The caption under the first picture: "This is the reality of life on Earth." The caption on the second one: "This is an anomaly and can end at any time." It's a great reminder of how good most of have it, especially within the context of millennia of human existence. It's also a reminder that many of our fears and fixations—especially those commonly expressed on social media and in legislatures—fall into what my daughter calls fi...
Reason
Remember when the federal government accused social media companies of spreading misinformation about COVID-19? Well, according to a recent bombshell report from Reuters, top U.S. policy makers should have pointed their fingers at a giant mirror. That's because the U.S. military, under both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, deliberately spread misinformation on social media about the COVID-19 vaccines, in hopes of encouraging Filipinos to distrust the Chinese government. The disinformation campaign—which involved hundreds of fake accounts on X—promoted the idea that Sinova...
Reason
Hunter Biden, the troubled son of President Joe Biden, was convicted this week of three charges related to illegally purchasing a gun while suffering from drug addiction. It is fair to ask whether prosecutors should have brought these charges in the first place; Reason's Jacob Sullum described the violated law in question as "widely flouted, haphazardly enforced, and constitutionally dubious." Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) wrote on X: "Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it. There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, an...
Reason
Anthony Fauci, top adviser on COVID-19 under both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, was in the hot seat this week, facing intense criticism from congressional Republicans as well as unending praise from congressional Democrats. Monday's hearing, organized by the House Oversight Committee's Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, functioned as a quintessential example of the extreme polarization that characterizes modern U.S. political discourse; for half the country, Fauci is a villain—for the other half, he is worthy of sainthood. Occupying the former camp, Rep. Marjorie Taylor ...
Reason
A Michigan man swept the internet last week after a viral video showed him attending a court hearing via Zoom after he appeared to park his car. That quickly became a national story. Should it have been? The footage, which first made the rounds on social media, showed Corey Harris calling into a hearing before Judge J. Cedric Simpson of the Washtenaw County District Court. "I'm looking at his record. He doesn't have a license," Simpson says about a minute into the hearing. "He's suspended and he's just driving….I don't even know why he would do that." Harris' bond was promptly revoked and he w...
Reason
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