Michael Socolow

Health insurance rates in Maine set to skyrocket Mainers who receive health coverage through the individual and small group employer market could see rate increases up to 32 percent next year.

"These are eye-popping numbers... People are going to be shocked."

-Bob Carey, superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Insurance, on the rate increases submitted by insurers to his office for 2026.

www.bangordailynews.com/2025/08/04/s...

Over the cover a booklet titled: "Vertical Study of Radio Ownership, 1930 - 1933" the text says: "Who Owned Radios in 1933? CBS's "A Vertical Study of Radio Ownership" illustrated big radio ownership differences between the states.

"Who Owned Radios in 1933?"
Many more [poor] people in New York than in North Carolina were tuned in.
Even in the broadcast era, not everyone heard the same information - there were distinct American "publics."
The latest in the Lint Trap.

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/who-owned-...

I found this today on the walking path linking Sylvan Rd and Stillwater Ave in Bamgor, Maine.
It wasn't here yesterday. I walk this path almost every day.

When I first heard the "Dead Internet Theory" a couple of years ago, I found it creative + amusing (also: silly).
But here's where life gets weird: the theory is in-process of being actualized in reality.
A conspiracy theory that only later *becomes* real?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_In...

THe image is of a newspaper article. Writen over it: "When a Fake News Movie Tried to Swing the Presidential Election... in 1904" A fascinating new media moment glimpsed through the Google Newspaper Archive.

Long before AI + "deep fakes" new media was exploited to create & distribute phony content to inflame political tensions.
In 1904, some fraudsters tried fake news against TR.
We've been living with new media dangers a long time.
Latest in the Lint Trap

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/when-a-fak...

Makes no sense to compare July, 2024 to July, 2025:

Biden had his debate meltdown at end of June, then took a few weeks before dropping out on July 21.
Trump was shot at in Butler, PA, on July 13.
It was a hyper-packed & suspenseful news month, I'd bet it had sky-high ratings vs. July 2023.

A picture of living room with the words: "One Man Digitized Over 57 Million Newspaper Pages... And Made Them Available to You. The Truly Unbelievable Old Fulton Newspaper Database.

One man, named Tom Tryniski, has digitized +57 million newspaper pages & put them on the web.
It's an incredible story.
Check out his Old Fulton Newspaper database, and you might even discover something about your family.
The latest in The Lint Trap.

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/one-man-di...

Perspective | Gawker has been gone for a year. We’ve never needed it more than now. The infamous gossip site skewered Trump before he was president, and never showed any fear. We could use that style of journalism now.

Gawker's demise made it much easier for powerful people to hide their malfeasance: "Gawker might have been foolhardy, reckless and ultimately self-destructive, but it was also, above all, courageous."
I stand by my 2017 @washingtonpost.com eulogy for Gawker.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteve...

I know it seems hard to believe, but once upon a time cable TV news wasn't six people sitting around a table arguing with each other for an hour.

It provided interesting and informative news reporting from around the country and the world.

One More Heavy Metal Thought - Like Christian Crooner Pat Boone, Try Crossing Over It's a good habit, way beyond music.

I appreciated @revkin.bsky.social revisiting Pat Boone-Ozzy relationship.
Reminded me: "Crazy Train" is about a *sane* person being driven mad by an insane world.
It's actually a poetic critique of socio-political power, & modernity's robbery of individual agency

revkin.substack.com/p/one-more-h...

"Free to Use and Reuse Sets" From the Library of Congress. Explore materials digitized and made available (copyright-free) to the public.

The @librarycongress.bsky.social has an incredible trove of digitized images & materials, and they've assembled a portal for objects without copyright ("Free to Use and Reuse") for anybody to use in content creation.
A real public service.
The latest in The Lint Trap.

linttrapofhistory.substack.com

When your program is *too* valuable to a media corporation, its free speech will be protected.
"South Park" now can say anything about President Trump for the next five years.
In the 1960s - 1970s, TV news was the most lucrative genre on TV, which led to critical Vietnam + Watergate coverage.

Woke up this morning in Maine, it was 57F (13C), crisp and cool.

One of the (many) great things about Maine: You get a few days of September in July, a few days of July in September, a few days of April in February, a few days of February in April...

I guess I don't follow - is it his self-description? Or that he follows so few people (ratio)? Something he's posted recently I missed?
Sorry I don't understand "the approach to Bluesky" he's representative of ? (I'm honestly curious, I have no idea).

YouTube video by NBC News Ex-NFL kicker Chris Kluwe arrested after city council protest

I can't tell if you're joking or not - if you don't know Chris Kluwe, the NFL punter (Vikings)- who was arrested in protest after giving this pretty compelling speech before the Huntington Beach CA City Council a few months ago.

www.youtube.com/shorts/Nl1QV...

Wisconsin State Journal ‘re-reports’ Brayton Lot story after original removed for ‘unauthorized use of AI’ Much of the Sunday State Journal’s front page story about downtown development was fiction created by an 'unauthorized use of AI.'

I'm not teaching CMJ 111: Introduction to Journalism this fall, but if I were, this would be on the syllabus.

isthmus.com/news/news/wi...

Occam's Razor: If a TV show *really* loses $40 million per year, which is $769,000 per week, or $154,000 EVERY EPISODE... You don't keep it on the air for 10 extra months.

You cancel it YESTERDAY & let the O-and-Os run infomercials to make time slot revenue-positive.

It's wasn't the money.

In 2025, all major media companies using the web-which was built for linkage+interactivity-actively work to limit audience autonomy & agency + constrict your choice(s).
Spotify, Meta, X, Netflix, Google, Amazon-they all now work to limit rather than expand your choices.
But they pretend the opposite

No "Twilight Zone" ?

Also, what an aside: "Watergate - which after all involved an actual conspiracy..."
Complicates the column's whole premise of conspiracies as fictional drama?

TV news was *filled* with "conspiracy theories" proven correct in 1960s -1990s.

"Local Radio & TV Histories: A Digitized Collection" The World Radio History Website collects, digitizes, and publishes local primary sources unvailable elsewhere. Photo image of World Radio History Bookshelf Webpage, with images and links.

Today in The Lint Trap: A website that collects & digitizes local radio & TV station histories.

From KVLF, Alpine, TX, to CKNW, Vancouver, BC, the World Radio History bookshelf is a fascinating media history library.

The web still has some gems.

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/local-radi...

Maine was only state w/ 2 Senators from different parties where *both* voted against recission for this reason.

Maine Public remains (generally) popular across the state, and is actually funded partially by state appropriation.
There's a reservoir of goodwill here that might cushion (hopefully).

The question the institutional Democratic Party doesn't want to face is whether this is just... bad luck.

Or whether luck is the residue of design.

List of "Resigned/Died" Congressional Representatives in the 119th Congress (Current). 2 Republicans resigned and were replaced by 2 Republicans. 3 Democrats died. 1 Republican will resign effective July 20, 2025.

The recission vote was 216 - 213 in the House.
That's 3 votes.
If you look at the list of "Resigned/Died" in the 119th Congress (the current one), you'll notice something:
Had the Democrats not had 3 Representatives die, it would've been a tie vote (216 - 216).
In the House, a tie means defeat.

"DIscovered Media History Treasure: A Collection of Interviews with Hollywood Celebrities (1970s - 1980s): The Bob Lardine Tapes at the Internet Archive

"Discovered Media History Treasure: Interviews with Hollywood Celebrities (1970s-1980s)"
The Bob Lardine Tapes @ Internet Archive.
[h/t @notjessewalker.bsky.social ]

Everyone from Bernadette Peters to Gregory Peck (& Fonzie!).
Latest in the Lint Trap.

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/discovered...

Are you referring to his attempt to mimic the alliterative resonance of Jan Brady's "Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!" cry from "The Brady Bunch"?

Because that's what I hear every time.

"I’ve spent decades earning a living because I could articulate uncomfortable truths about politics and media. I knew the ride wouldn’t last forever. I just didn't expect the bottom to drop out so quickly and thoroughly. I'm watching the industry get lobotomized..."

Graphic with text "I don’t think reporters, editors and producers plan to let Donald Trump become their editor-in-chief over the next three years. But we’ll only know by watching."

From the new, free Substack of @us.theconversation.com, a look at Trump's settlements with CBS and ABC, from keen media observer @michaelsocolow.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/theconve...

ABC’s and CBS’s settlements with Trump are a dangerous step toward the commander in chief becoming the editor-in-chief Will costly settlements over news stories the president sued about influence network journalists when deciding whether to pursue investigative stories involving the Trump administration?

It's too early to know if there'll be a chilling effect at @60minutes.bsky.social & CBS News after the settlement.

But Trump's now in a position to influence TV journalism on a scale LBJ, Nixon and Carter would envy.

Me in @us.theconversation.com today:

theconversation.com/abcs-and-cbs...

The New Yorker’s fact-checking started with a testy letter from a Maine poet’s mother The magazine, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, traces its famously rigorous process to a 1927 letter from Edna St. Vincent Millay's mother, pointing out several errors in a story abou...

TIL: The @newyorker.com 's famously rigorous fact-checking process began because they absolutely blew a 1927 profile of Maine's own Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Millay's mother wrote them a scathing letter to correct the record (which they printed).
Fascinating.

www.pressherald.com/2025/06/26/t...

YouTube video by LiveAidWizard Duran Duran - A View To A Kill (MTV - Live Aid 7/13/1985)

40 Years Ago Today: Duran Duran "A View to a Kill" at Live Aid (Philadelphia).

An astonishingly good performance when you consider they'd never played it live previously.

Only Bond theme to hit No. 1.

It was No. 1 on the charts when performed at Live Aid on this date.

youtu.be/SxR6AJAh-Gw?...