Amanda Becker

Apparently this might be a fake tweet - thank god?

Utterly ludicrous framing from @nytimes.com here, treating Pete Hegseth's arguments as if they're legitimate. The casual reader will be left with no inkling whatsoever of how unusual and corrupt an abuse of the process this truly is:

Isaac Chotiner: "You would have to be brain-dead to read this piece and not immediately wonder who is funding Semafor Gulf." Quote post of Ben Smith saying: "Fascinating @msergie piece on covering a monarchy" about a Semafor article on Saudi Arabia's crown prince Smith responds to Chotiner: "That's a hell of an allegation/implication, Isaac. To figure out the literal answer to your question, you'd either have to look and see who the sponsors are in the email (I haven't checked today!) or read our publicly disclosed list of investors. I believe you're trying to imply that it's the Saudi government? Have you read more of our coverage, or just this tweet? My impression — correct me if I'm wrong — is that you're working on zero information and smearing us in general, and an experienced journalist @msergie whose work I suspect you're totally unfamiliar with in particular." Chotiner responds:"I’m not making any allegation. I’m making a simple point about how an average reader—myself included—might respond after reading this ridiculous piece"

Ben Smith: "Just asking questions! Come on. You genuinely know better. Or read Mohammed's long career of work covering the Gulf and the Syrian war before you imply he's some kind of stooge." Noah Kulwin: "The point is not about who funds your reporting/if your colleague is a “stooge”. Isaac’s comment is that the reporting is so bad so as to make a reader wonder who is funding it" Smith: A reader, sure. A journalist who can do very basic homework, kind of lame. Chotiner: "You are right, I’ll do some homework now by perusing Jay Solomon Semafor pieces, and reading Jason Greenblatt Semafor columns. In the meantime, I will formally say that I am making no accusation and was just astonished at how inane the piece was"

Chotiner quote-posts with "I see Semafor loves running column after column by this guy (https://semafor.com/author/faisal-j-abbas), who also publishes pro-Saudi conspiracies about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi https://arabnews.com/node/1386291" Ben Smith's post says "I hope I'm not overreacting, but it makes me crazy when people I think of as reporters do this "just asking questions" stuff. Feel free to report it out by googling/asking me/reading our various scoops and reports about the region — these two just now" and links to two Semafor articles

Chotiner quote posts Ben Smith: "You might have heard that the UAE is helping destroy Sudan, but at the next Semafor event, all is well." Screenshot says "Held at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Semafor will spotlight insights from the Global Findex 2025 report and the Global Digital Connectivity Tracker, translating global research into actionable, locally relevant conversations. As the third stop on The Next 3 Billion Tour, this edition explores how the Gulf's growing investments in Africa can accelerate digital connectivity and financial inclusion. With Abu Dhabi's focus on sustainable finance, digital transformation, and cross-border collaboration, it offers a strong platform to examine how technology and capital can work together to expand access and opportunity." Ben Smith's post says "Just asking questions! Come on. You genuinely know better. Or read Mohammed's long career of work covering the Gulf and the Syrian war before you imply he's some kind of stooge."

A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.

it was enough for me to glance at The Bad Place.

Ohio bill would add political parties to school board races, reduce State Board of Education seats • Ohio Capital Journal The Ohio legislature brought back up a bill that would add party names to local school board elections, and added an amendment that would eliminate elected seats on the State Board of Education,…

Ohio lawmakers have brought back up a bill to add party labels to candidates in local school board elections with a new amendment that would also eliminate all elected seats on the State Board of Education, making the entire body governor-appointed ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/24/o...

Susan Collins backs referendum to overturn Maine’s protections for transgender students Collins' office said she signed onto the petition because she agrees with President Donald Trump’s interpretation of Title IX.

GOP Sen. Susan Collins, up for reelection next year, backs referendum to overturn Maine’s protections for transgender students www.bangordailynews.com/2025/11/24/p...

‘This piggy won’t be quiet’: The women who spent two nights on a bus to protest the president Days after President Trump called a reporter “piggy,” dozens of fellow women boarded a bus in Ohio for a 36-hour “turn and burn” trip to Washington to fight for regime change.

While #ThisTown consumed by journalist-journalist-politician-politician sex scandal w/ journalists trying to capitalize on the sordid details, everyday Americans pulling out all the stops in what they see as an existential fight for democracy — & nearly no coverage 19thnews.org/2025/11/ohio...

Push Back Against Trump’s Press Abuse It’s long past time for the Fourth Estate to challenge the president’s unhinged hostility and unbridled misogyny.

It’s hard to decide which is more disturbing—that the president of the United States thinks that being disliked is a mitigating factor in the murder of a journalist; or that he considers reporters who ask questions he doesn’t like to be “insubordinate.”

‘This piggy won’t be quiet’: The women who spent two nights on a bus to protest the president Days after President Trump called a reporter “piggy,” dozens of fellow women boarded a bus in Ohio for a 36-hour “turn and burn” trip to Washington to fight for regime change.

"This piggy won't be quiet:" 36 hours. 2 overnight bus trips from OH to DC. Inside the effort to "Remove the Regime": 19thnews.org/2025/11/ohio... via @19thnews.org

‘This piggy won’t be quiet’: The women who spent two nights on a bus to protest the president Days after President Trump called a reporter “piggy,” dozens of fellow women boarded a bus in Ohio for a 36-hour “turn and burn” trip to Washington to fight for regime change.

"This piggy won’t be quiet"
I spent some time with a group of Ohioans who took two overnight bus trips to DC and back this weekend for the #RemovetheRegime protest:
19thnews.org/2025/11/ohio... via @19thnews.org

‘This piggy won’t be quiet’: The women who spent two nights on a bus to protest the president Days after President Trump called a reporter “piggy,” dozens of fellow women boarded a bus in Ohio for a 36-hour “turn and burn” trip to Washington to fight for regime change.

‘This piggy won’t be quiet’: The women who spent two nights on a bus to protest the president 19thnews.org/2025/11/ohio... via @19thnews.org

A disabled child’s mom reported him missing. He was in federal custody for 48 days. When Emmanuel Gonzalez walked away from his mom’s fruit stand in October, Houston Police called ICE instead of reuniting them.

A disabled child’s mom reported him missing. He was in federal custody for 48 days. 19thnews.org/2025/11/disa... via @19thnews.org

Misogyny has jumped the shark.

“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas. Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

When Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old from Texas, asked doctors about terminating her high-risk pregnancy to save her life, they assured her she had nothing to worry about.

Then she died of preeclampsia.

Tatiana Schlossberg On The Power Of Our ‘Inconspicuous Consumption’ A new report finds global efforts to combat climate change over the past several years have been "gravely insufficient,” and according to the Global Commission on Adaptation, it's not so much money, but rather a lack of political leadership that's the source of the problem. A new book from former New York Times science reporter Tatiana Schlossberg details ways in which our everyday choices in clothing, technology, food and fuel contribute to the problem — and how consumers can make a difference by demanding more of the companies and governments behind the systems at play. Jim Braude was joined by Tatiana Schlossberg.

If you read Tatiana Schlossberg’s essay in the New Yorker yesterday and want to learn more about her work, here’s an interview she sat down for when she was promoting her book “Inconspicuous Consumption.”

'Why won't you help me?' Pregnant women and their babies are dying in jail Dozens of pregnant women locked up in county jails described excruciating pain, saying their cries for help were ignored as they miscarried or gave birth into cell toilets or on filthy jail floors.

Big, yearlong investigation from @NBCNews.com landed today:

"Dozens of pregnant women locked up in county jails described excruciating pain, saying their cries for help were ignored as they miscarried or gave birth into cell toilets or on filthy jail floors."

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Why do house flippers near universally seem to think you just slap on 4-6 different shades of gray, no matter if they match or not, and that's now the 2025 'style'

don't watch football but did cover law firms for years and did not think i'd see these words strung together.

I kept saying "YES" aloud every couple of graphs and I only live with my cats.

Slotkin: "He's trying to distract us from the big stories of last week, the Epstein files and economy. He's tweeting 'the economy is the best it's ever been' -- amazing considering the public isn't stupid. It reminded me of Joe Biden. Biden tried to tell us for a year that the economy was great."

Opinion | How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails

"Whereabouts are the pheromones of this elite ... Their loyalty, it appears, is less downward to people and communities than horizontal to fellow members of their borderless network."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

"What [Epstein's] correspondents tended to share was membership in a distinctly modern elite: a ruling class in which 40,000-foot nomadism, world citizenship and having just landed back from Dubai lend the glow that deep roots once provided."

Opinion | How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails

Nailed it. This is great, @anandwrites.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

Two new polls show learning about Trump's policies moves public opinion toward Democrats Your weekly political data roundup for November 13, 2025

Two new polls show learning about Trump's policies moves public opinion toward Democrats
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/two-new-po...

How right-wing superstar Riley Gaines built an anti-trans empire The swimmer tied a trans woman for fifth. The MAGA industrial complex took care of the rest.

Riley Gaines climbed the MAGA ladder by vilifying trans women in sports. Now, teammates are speaking out about the real problems on her team: abusive coaching, sexual harassment, eating disorders. ow.ly/o3wq50XuCzp

(A layer of irony being that there is no non-ICE ice in Monrovia, California.)

Reuters has confirmed that President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his special envoy Steve Witkoff held a private meeting in Miami with a sanctioned Kremlin proxy to help shape the new "peace plan" for Ukraine. www.reuters.com/world/europe...

🤮

Something led me tonight to Wharton Esherick's dictionary stand (via American Craft Council), which reminded me of his library ladder — one of my favorite things digital.craftcouncil.org/digital/coll...

😂 (and then the internet banding together to DM the PDF)