Jack Shafer

Being emo is officially probable cause now

How Comics Were Sold (to Newspapers) Hello from the next installment of newspaper comics history and lore! In this issue, I talk about the way in which cartoons were advertised to editors by...

The latest edition of my (free) comics history newsletter is out! buttondown.com/howcomics/ar...

Exclusive: Ghislaine Maxwell was honored at a prestigious Clinton event years after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced | CNN Politics Years after she was publicly accused in civil lawsuits and the press of helping Jeffrey Epstein groom and sexually abuse minors, Ghislaine Maxwell was an honored guest at the prestigious Clinton Globa...

Exclusive: Ghislaine Maxwell was honored at a prestigious Clinton event years after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced

www.cnn.com/2025/08/24/p...

Penn & Teller’s Greatest Trick: Making Us Think They’re Not Friends

Penn & Teller reinvented magic. And stayed together for 50 years. I spent a couple days with them to figure out the secret. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/a...

You're saying Road house isn't weighty!?

The Dutch Reformed came to Michigan from the Netherlands to escape growing religious tolerance. They objected to the state's new willingness to allow other Christian sects -- Lutherans, Mennonites, Catholics, Jews -- to worship their faiths freely.

You just hate innovation, Drew.

Opinion | Trump’s honest graft The president has turned himself into the central dispenser — and recipient — of economic opportunity.

Terrific piece by @jackshafer.bsky.social about the many flavors and shades of Trump's corruption. Well informed by US history.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

An event in Buffalo to launch a "Protect Local Journalism" campaign was postponed because of death threats to a local journalist.

The threats began after Pulitzer winner Adam Zyglis drew a cartoon that some people didn't like (you can see it in the next post)

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www.instagram.com/p/DL8JF1nyLA...

Top 50 news websites in the US: Top sites see steep traffic falls in May Press Gazette lists the top 50 biggest websites for news in the US. Monthly updated top 50 listing based on data from Similarweb.

Holy cow. CNN used to hold the No. 1 position with the NYT and the WashPost battling it out for No. 2. Now the Times is first, CNN second, and the Post is ... 17th. pressgazette.co.uk/media-audien...

Perhaps this signifies that after Trump departs he expects the country to revert from personalist rule to its previous status as a constitutional republic.

What's with this euphemistic language about Trump trying to "shift the ideological tilt of the higher education system" being repeated 2x by the NYT in 24 hours? And why call it a "bid" or "push"?

Reality: He's using illegal tactics to try to *control* higher ed by dictating policies and personnel.

cc: @brianstelter.bsky.social @oliverdarcy.bsky.social @jackshafer.bsky.social @erikwemple.bsky.social

California has a date with Trump in court The Constitution limits his power to push states around

If missed, from me: at some point Trump is likely to try his "choke off federal funding until they surrender" racket on one or more of the fifty state governments. Here's what might happen then

They say this and then in two years your AI girlfriend will keep steering the dinner conservation toward Squarespace discount codes

Latest installment from my unpublished book

hey @jackshafer.bsky.social, come back ... 👇

Can gene-edited pigs solve the organ transplant shortage? With clinical trials imminent, hopes are rising high for the long-struggling field of xenotransplantation

The longstanding joke about xenotransplantation--it's the future and always will be--may soon lose all its punch. www.science.org/content/arti...

White House Health Report Included Fake Citations

The New York Times has found at least two more fake citations in the MAHA report.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

Far-right activist with history of anti-gay comments fired from leadership role at Kennedy Center after CNN investigation | CNN Politics Floyd Brown, a far-right political activist with a history of anti-gay rhetoric and promoting conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama, said he was fired from a senior leadership role h...

NEW: A far-right political activist with a history of anti-gay rhetoric and promoting conspiracy theories about Barack Obama was fired from a senior leadership role at the Kennedy Center after CNN asked about his past comments. www.cnn.com/2025/05/29/p...

The inscription on Dave Weigel's tombstone will read "Folks..."

After 20-plus years, I’m leaving my staff job at Slate. In an industry where steady employment is … unusual … I’m so grateful to have had a long tenure at a great place with great people 1/4

In a long monologue in the Oval Office beside Canadian PM Mark Carney this afternoon, the President appears to say the trade "deals" his team are working on are not deals in the traditional sense, as they will not have to be signed.

This is really significant! More in thread.

Can we get Drew Harwell to stream 24/7?

we can save money on the flyover by telling him they are only using 'stealth planes'!

I'm fine with Trump's June military parade if he follows his two dolls and five pencils logic and downsizes it to one tank, one soldier, and one aircraft flyover.

I have a David A. Graham portrait on my biceps.

Have we reached peak tattoo?

Actually, it's First Amendment behavior.