Simon Houpt

yeah they're just murdering random people on these boats

This is such a great piece of reporting and writing. As with so much of what @thelocal.to does, it takes something important happening in plain sight that we’re not paying attention to, and helps us appreciate the beauty and troubles underneath the surface.

Of course, the disconnect between the online world and mainstream coverage stems, in part, from the fact that most top newsroom leaders and journalists are not fluent in the digital battlefield where today's information wars are fought. They're not spending their days scrolling politics-focused TikTok and Instagram, watching YouTube streams of podcasters like Joe Rogan and Benny Johnson, or wading through platforms like X where the combat takes place. Maybe that's a function of age, maybe it's a matter of interest or time. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. The result is the same: leaders who are not immersed in the online trenches and lack a real grasp of who the key players are and how much influence they wield

Here, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social gets to the heart of how poorly equipped most newsrooms are in understanding the true nature of online discourse these days — as evidenced by CNN’s hamfisted interview of Jack Posobiec, along with MSM’s inability to interpret Tyler Robinson’s slogans

It was a Canadian who came up with "The medium is the message".
It's just not right for @mark-carney.bsky.social's government to be encouraging Canadians to go to X for government communications. Hold a press briefing, folks.

I’m sorry, “Didn’t participate in a moment of silence”? What in the authoritarian state is happening.

When Vai, in Pudin me dected ), one of his hrst acts was to kill "Kukly," a sketch puppet show that portrayed him as Little Tsaches, a sinister baby who uses a "magic TV comb" to bewitch a city. Putin threatened to wreck the channel, NTV, unless it removed the puppet. NTV refused. Within months, it was under state control. According to Newsweek, "Putin jokes quickly vanished from Russia's television screens." Soon after Trump was elected, he, too, began complaining about a sketch show: "Saturday Night Live," which portrayed him as a preening fool, Putin's puppet. His tweets lost the shape of jokes, unless you count "Not!" as a kicker. He was no longer the blue bear. Instead, he was reportedly meeting with Rupert Murdoch about who should head the F.C.C. Soon, Trump would be able to shape deals like the A.T. & T. and Time Warner merger, to strike back at those who made fun of him or criticized him, which often amounted to the same thing. Fox would likely be Trump TV.

Last week, at his first press conference as President-elect, Trump made no jokes. He was fuming over the BuzzFeed dossier and all those lurid allegations worthy of "South Park," the pee jokes lighting up Twitter. Only when he reminisced about his rallies did he relax, recalling their size, the thrill of the call and response. He almost smiled. But when CNN's Jim Acosta tried to ask a question about Russia, Trump snapped back, furiously, "Fake news!" —and the incoming White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, told Acosta that if he tried that again he'd be thrown out. Now, it seems, is when Trump gets serious. A President pushes buttons in a different sense. As Putin once remarked to a child, "Russia's borders don't end anywhere" — before adding, "That's a joke."

The Kimmel cancellation reminded me of the final paragraphs of the essay I wrote about Trump, TV and humor back in 2017:

This was after Colbert was canceled. Which was two months ago.

If you don’t want to be called a Nazi, stop acting like one.

Really important story that’s not getting enough attention. So good to see The Local on it.

You Really Need to See Epstein’s Birthday Book for Yourself This time, the conspiracy theorists were right.

I wrote about what I think is a genuinely revealing document of elite depravity and impunity. It is shocking and sickening. But it's also a crucial moment. We're about to see what happens when conspiracy theorists actually get what they asked for but it turns out not to be what they want.

Waiting screen for the FIFA World Cup ticket waiting room.

30 minutes and counting.

Stand up against Street Harassment September 4, 2025 Noon - 1pm EST

There are so many awful things happening in the world right now and so many of us feel powerless to change anything.

But community care is a skill we can all learn. We CAN show up for each other when we see our fellow neighbours being targeted.

Let me teach you how!

zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire in Gaza Hussam al-Masri reported on the war's civilian suffering while himself living in a tent and struggling to find food for his family.

Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri had four kids and a wife who has cancer. He had been trying to get her out for treatment when an Israeli airstrike killed him at a hospital this week. www.reuters.com/business/med...

A young woman, in a dark dress and pink head scarf, feeds a bottle to a malnourished child. A headline reads: "Starvation Haunts Gaza Hospitals." Photo by Bilal Shbair for The New York Times.

After restrictions on aid imposed by Israel, medics in Gaza are fainting in hospitals and lack supplies to stop patients’ malnourishment. “The expression ‘skin and bones’ doesn’t do it justice.” nyti.ms/3J5WDXp

I spent a night in a field an hour outside Kitchener getting an up-close look at the worm industry. Our tiny corner of the province exports all of North America's bait worms: it's a curious business run by families and powered by immigrant labour, and every fact I learned enchanted me a little more🪱

The Political Motives Behind the Gaza Aid Catastrophe As Palestinians continue to die of severe hunger, a former Israeli official explains what the latest plan is really meant to achieve.

As Palestinians continue to die of hunger, a former Israeli official speaks out about the government’s “total failure” to deliver aid in Gaza.

Justice Carroccia says she does not find the accuser’s evidence ‘either credible or reliable’ Justice Maria Carroccia set to decide fate of former world junior players Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote accused in 2018 alleged assault

Justice Carroccia (announcing her decision in the Hockey Canada trial) says: “I do not find the evidence of E.M. to be either credible or reliable.” Robyn Doolittle adds: She finds that consent was not vitiated by fear.
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Come work at @theglobeandmail.com. We’ve just posted a number of new editorial positions: jobs.dayforcehcm.com/en-US/theglo...

A sign on a brown door reads "Room 426 - The Narwhal News Society v. Attorney General"

Carol Linnitt, co-founder of The Narwhal, flew to Vancouver in April, took a glass elevator up a glimmering skyscraper and entered a boardroom full of lawyers. There she was grilled, for hours, about details of The Narwhal’s press freedom lawsuit against the RCMP.

Canada says

continues to be noteworthy that all major government organizations and politicians in this province can’t quit a certain website

it is simply no longer possible to successfully transmit factual information to a whole lot of people. I am so depressed

A bedraggled Uncle Sam holds envelope addressed “To America’s Poor” and a letter reading: “FINAL DEMAND - YOU OWE AMERICA’S RICH: Your health cover, your food stamps, plus around $5 trillion in debt. Time to pay up!”

Globe and Mail editorial cartoonist David Parkins on the effect of that One Big Beautiful Bill.

Such a fabulous piece.

Province Invests $1.3 Billion in New Schools—Just Not in Toronto | The Local The Tories will fund 45 school building projects across the province—and not a single one in the TDSB, the biggest board in the province. Critics say the opaque process puts politics over students.

This morning at 8 am, my child's teacher told me it was already 33 C inside the classroom. Members of the Ontario government have air conditioning in their offices, yet they're not doing basic repairs in Toronto schools, let alone protecting our kids from extreme heat. thelocal.to/ontario-educ...

A year after the sudden closure of the Ontario Science Centre due to what staff call “a manufactured crisis” by the Ford government, workers (and the rest of us) grieve its loss.

www.thestar.com/politics/the...

At the World Expo in Osaka, clashing visions of cultural diplomacy help Canada stand out The country’s soft statecraft is ‘priceless’ right now, Canada’s commissioner-general for Expo 2025 says

New: I visited the World Expo in Osaka, where Canada's vision for soft cultural diplomacy is much subtler & more welcoming than the United States—whose pavilion is full of contradictions about global cooperation but features an immersive rocket launch(???) www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and...

Er, “the press” put the mass protests against the war in Iraq on their front pages by the hundreds.

A leader of the MN House Democrats is murdered by a Republican pro-life activist. Rather than condemning political murder of his opponents, Elon Musk spreads the conspiracy theory that it was done by Democrats. Journalists don’t need to use any social media site. But they really shouldn’t use X.