(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...
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!
Good conversation — Thanks, @semaforben.bsky.social @maxtani.bsky.social
youtube.com/watch?v=uZvq...
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?
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.
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 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
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.
The most plugged-in people in Washington are reading the same tweets you are, @semaforben.bsky.social writes.
.@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...
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
🟡 NEW: Inside the identity crisis in anti-woke media
www.semafor.com/article/05/2...
that's right
"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
