Peter Maass

How America’s First Star War Reporter Set the Tone For a Century of Journalism Richard Harding Davis is regarded by many as the first war correspondent of modern American journalism—not because he was the first to cover nineteenth-century warfare, but because he attracted a l…

@maassp.bsky.social unpacks the sensationalist journalism of Richard Harding Davis, America’s first star war reporter.

Thank you, truly appreciate it. Fwiw I kind of think the Swedish Academy is getting the fate it deserves -- the awarding of its cherished prize treated as trashy performance art.

The Nobel Prize in Literature Is Boring Now László Krasznahorkai, who was awarded the Prize on Thursday, is a brilliant novelist and consummate laureate. But has the Swedish Academy lost its sense of fun?

Take it from me, the guy who derided/dunked/nuked the Swedish Academy for awarding the 2019 Nobel Literature Prize to genocide denialist Peter Handke -- this hilarious takedown by @alexshephard.bsky.social and @markkrotov.bsky.social merits its own Nobel. newrepublic.com/article/2015...

How America’s First Star War Reporter Set the Tone For a Century of Journalism Richard Harding Davis is regarded by many as the first war correspondent of modern American journalism—not because he was the first to cover nineteenth-century warfare, but because he attracted a l…

Very proud that LitHub published my retrospective on the first great war reporter, Richard Harding Davis, whose coverage of the Spanish-American war set the flawed standard for conflict journalism. My piece introduces a new publication of Davis's "Cuba in War Time." lithub.com/how-americas...

Baghdad 1979 is calling, wants its Baath Party purge back.

How Lachlan Murdoch Went From Studying Philosophy at Princeton to Exploiting White Nationalism at Fox News Rupert Murdoch's oldest son has taken charge of Fox News. The family's role in the far-right network is coming under greater scrutiny.

With Lachlan Murdoch in the headlines, thanks to his buyout of his siblings for full control of Fox News, I'm re-upping my deep dive into his (revealing) years as a philosophy student at Princeton. theintercept.com/2019/03/30/l...

What Labor Day Sales Say About the American Dream Alissa Quart writes about the relationship between Labor Day sales and economic opportunity in America.

My latest story for @timemagazine.bsky.social on Labor Day, Labor Day Sales and the American Dream. A very personal essay time.com/7313480/labo... @eccobooks.bsky.social @economichardship.bsky.social @jillgrinberglit.bsky.social @maiasz.bsky.social @maassp.bsky.social @economichardship.bsky.social

What I'm doing in the coming year -- a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography to work on my book about Jacob Schiff, Felix Warburg and their philanthropic support for Jewish emigration to British-controlled Palestine in the context of non-Zionism.

Friends, a funny but cautionary tale of how wrong GROK gets things.

I am neither Jewish, nor "Whitewashing myself" nor Antisemitic. Follow this thread my pal @maassp.bsky.social posted..you may need to go back to Peter's account to follow the whole damn thread...which gets comically absurd

"Crime" And The Occupation of D.C. What is the meaning of crime? Is it Criminals Robbing Innocent Motherfuckers Everytime?

“[W]hen you disregard ‘crime in the strict legal sense’ as the criterion for enforcement, grand new vistas of violence against "disordered" social populations open,” writes @attackerman.bsky.social

Meanwhile, in upstate New York…

LLMs are black boxes but it seems fair to conclude that Grok used Janine's posts to form its opinion of her and failed to discern that her use of "I'm Jewish" was not a reference to her own lineage but a quote from a story she linked to. A fifth grader wouldn't make that mistake.

Grok hadn't mentioned my article in its first response, so I wondered what was going on. I vaguely recalled that Janine retweeted my article in 2024, so I checked her timeline and yes, bingo, she had done so and quoted my "I'm Jewish" line.

Someone then asked if she was actually Jewish, and Grok fessed up that it "misattributed" my Washington Post story -- headlined "I'm Jewish, and I've covered wars. I know war crimes when I see them" -- to her.

Here's a funny yet revealing tale about Grok (Elon Musk's AI) attributing a story I wrote to my friend @janinedigi.bsky.social, and as a result saying she's Jewish (which she's not, though I am).
It starts with a query from an X account that didn't like a post from Janine and asked Grok about her.

Pulitzer Prize for Best Use of Habibi…

From 2024, @mollycrabapple.bsky.social:

JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip Exclusive: Incident raises questions of exploitation of public services, but Secret Service says it was requested for ‘safe navigation’

Perfect 10 on the North Korea scale. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Inside the Battle Over 'Napalm Girl' A new documentary, 'The Stringer,' investigates the story of the famous Vietnam War photo "Napalm Girl," raising questions about who actually took it

A fascinating and meticulous article by Gary Knight about the likelihood that one of the most famous war photos of the 20th century was taken by one photographer but attributed to another. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

“There is a campaign in the Israeli media about Israel starving Gazans. From the pictures I see I think they need to lose some weight.”
Right-wing Israeli network Channel 14 hosts mock the mother of four-year-old Razan Abu Zaher, who died last week of starvation.
Read: zeteo.com?utm_source=n...

The Belated Voices Against The U.S.-Israeli Genocide of The Palestinians Why did the onset of famine, and not any of the previous 21 months of collective slaughter, not compel them to speak out?

Every word of this www.forever-wars.com/the-belated-...

Opinion | My Mother, the Artist, Discovered at 90

One of the loveliest articles you can read today was written by my wife, Alissa Quart, about her mother’s paintings and what spreading them in our world means. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/o...

Weekend - Gulf states urge Trump to help achieve Gaza ceasefire - BBC Sounds A Gaza hospital says 24 people were killed on Saturday near an aid distribution site

This morning on BBC World Service we took time to Remember Srebrenica.
We recalled what happened&heard from survivors & relatives. David Rhode told us how he uncovered the first mass graves 30 years ago. With guests Arminka Helic and Steven Erlanger👇from min 26:30
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Will be tapping this sign for years.

NATASHA | NATASHA DOCUMENTARY FILM NATASHA documentary is the story of a fearless human rights investigator in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and war in Chechnya.

Upcoming at the Tribeca film festival, the short documentary "Natasha," co-directed by my friend Andrew Meier, about the slain human rights investigator in Chechnya, Natasha Estemirova. www.natashadoc.com

New York Review of Books announcement of the 2025-2026 fellows at the Leon Levy Center for Biography: Peter Maass, Deborah Solomon, Alex Traub, Vanessa Troiana, Autumn Womack, J. Arvid Agren.

Personal news: I will be a fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at CUNY, working on my next book, "End of a Fortune: The Warburgs and Schiffs and the World They Tried to Make." To be published by Hachette's Grand Central imprint, it's about my family's complicated role in Israel's creation.

Silver lining, I don't need to travel to a distant country to cover the Forever Wars anymore.

Hello, I've visited North Korea and watched its propaganda broadcasts -- this is the same stuff!

"Mainstream American Jewish leaders have ... effectively redefined what it means to be a Jew. To silence condemnation of Israel, they have equated support for the state with Jewishness itself." -- @peterbeinart.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/o...

If you'd like to read a narrative version of this thread that goes into greater depth and complexity, I wrote a feature story for ProPublica and The New Yorker in 2011 that was headlined, "The Toppling: How the Media Inflated a Minor Moment in a Long War." www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...