Ben Smith

(Semafor) - The New York Times and Washington Post learned of a secret US raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin Friday night — but held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops ..

@semafor.com
www.semafor.com/article/01/0...

ICE Holding Chinese Man Who Documented Uyghur Camps Heng Guan is awaiting an immigration hearing on Monday that could lead to his removal from the U.S. and ultimately land him back in China, according to his lawyer and a New York-based activist group.

In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.

He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.

www.wsj.com/world/china/...

Honoured that "Our Dear Friends in Moscow" was recommended this week by @semafor.com Editor-in-Chief @semaforben.bsky.social — thank you!

YouTube video by Semafor Ken Burns On The Future Of PBS, The New Media Age, & Why Documentaries Will Outlast TikTok

Good conversation — Thanks, @semaforben.bsky.social @maxtani.bsky.social
youtube.com/watch?v=uZvq...

YouTube video by Semafor Events View from FCC | Innovating to Restore Trust in News

At our media summit, I asked @BrendanCarrFCC about the l view that the greatest threat to free speech is him -- the government. He disagreed and said it was the social media companies.

At 5:30 here

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB64...

They used to be transactional pragmatists who nominated ex-Democrat Mike Bloomberg (for a fee) and won. You now have a Democrat with unusually high negatives and they decided to run the cat guy. I don't really even understand what you're accusing me of here?

I don't think the Trump folks are wrong to say that, for example, seizing control of the Fed is small-d democratic (as @adamtooze.bsky.social argues in that piece I linked) which is why I answered that way. No?

Deputy Editor-in-Chief New York City or Washington, D.C.

Big job for an ambitious editor job-boards.greenhouse.io/semafor/jobs...

A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers An initiative aimed at boosting Democrats online offers influencers up to $8,000 a month to push the party line. All they have to do is keep it secret—and agree to restrictions on their content.

SCOOP: A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers, raising questions about ethics in the independent media space

"Oh, it's the worst industry in the history of industries."

@mcuban.bsky.social tells @maxtani.bsky.social and @semaforben.bsky.social how he views the current media landscape, and why he doesn't invest much in the space these days.

Read the documents that prove Hillary Clinton OK’d plan to ‘smear’ Trump with Russia collusion Special counsel John Durham uncovered the information during a multi-year probe into intelligence activities during the 2016 election.

Pretty remarkable: The New York Post and others are currently running with a document from the (strange and fascinating) Durham Annex that the Durham Annex (a few pages later) says is a Russian fake, all in the broader interest of debunking "Russiagate" nypost.com/2025/07/31/u...

I do treasure this letter Tom Lehrer, who just died 60 years after he vanished from the stage, sent me when I tried to write about him www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom...

New: Palantir's CTO and several early employees are raising money to launch Founders Films, a film and TV production studio that aims to "say yes to projects about American exceptionalism, name America’s enemies, back artists unconditionally, take risk on novel IP.” www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

An NYC status update

The Political Class Is Responsible for the Man They’re Trying to Stop He’s what happens when the status quo fails.

The panicky elites dumping millions into last-minute attack ads against @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social should have been investing time and money to recruit, educate, and encourage young leaders. My latest in @nymag.com

How China wins in the new propaganda war A new Chinese initiative will pay for US influencers to visit and collaborate with local counterparts, according to state media.

A big story of this moment

www.semafor.com/article/06/1...

Great point from @semaforben.bsky.social about how - when the news goes crazy - your most senior sources are just scratching their heads, like the rest of us.

I remember it from the Brexit wars - cabinet ministers were happy to chat because no one had a clue what would happen.

Politics, when nothing’s behind the scenes The most plugged-in people in Washington are reading the same tweets you are.

The most plugged-in people in Washington are reading the same tweets you are, @semaforben.bsky.social‬ writes.

Musk’s administration allies become targets Among the figures caught in a still-simmering clash between the MAGA right and tech right is AI and crypto czar David Sacks.

Knives out for Musk allies www.semafor.com/article/06/0...

California opens inquiry into Paramount and Trump The California Senate’s move follows a letter from three US senators to the embattled media company.

.@maxwelltani scoop: CA State Senators @SenJoshBecker & @SenatorUmberg are opening an inquiry into Paramount's talks with Trump, and inviting Bill Owens and Wendy McMahon to testify www.semafor.com/article/05/3...

Reality continuing to disintegrate around the edges per @daveweigel.bsky.social @kadiagoba.bsky.social
www.semafor.com/article/05/2...

The top Community Notes contributor is...an antivirus startup? I thought someone was gaming X’s crowdsourced moderation; instead, they appear to be helping clean up the platform’s mess for free.

Scoop: The top contributor to X's Community Notes is a security startup that set up an automated process to flag crypto scam tweets. It's posted 52,000 times!

Read the remarkable details from @mantzarlis.com on @indicator.media:

indicator.media/p/the-top-co...

unforced error ... but yes Xerox-level

Inside the identity crisis in anti-woke media Donald Trump has taken their positions on many of their favored issues, but is pursuing their goals with the illiberal tactics they’d abhorred.

🟡 NEW: Inside the identity crisis in anti-woke media
www.semafor.com/article/05/2...

that's right

Semafor Media: 🟡 Anti-woke identity crisis | Semafor In today’s edition: How a slice of the media ecosystem is adapting to Trump in power.

"I spoke with a few congressional staffers who said that they had tried using Bluesky as an alternative to Twitter after Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk, but they gave up after their bosses kept getting yelled at by Democratic users angry at their impotence" www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

Glad one person caught this :)

Gina Chua hardest hit

Fascinating @semaforben.bsky.social piece on the Silicon Valley-led group chats that have shaped a lot of tech and political discourse over the past few years - and continue to. www.semafor.com/article/04/2...

Yes