The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

BuzzFeed Is Democracy, or Something

  It’s hard to take seriously Farhad Manjoo’s claim that layoffs at BuzzFeed represent “a story of impending slow-motion doom — and a democratic emergency in the making, with no end in sight.” (Hat-tip: Instapundit.) As I explained Wednesday (“Who Keeps Paying BuzzFeed’s Bills?”), the company has devoured nearly $500 million in investment capital since […]

Who Keeps Paying BuzzFeed’s Bills?

  Harrison Smith at InfoWars reminds us that BuzzFeed, which recently announced it would lay off “15 percent of its staff (with pink slips to go to up to 400 people, according to one insider),” has received nearly half a billion dollars of venture-capital investment since launching in 2006. In April 2013, it was reported […]

Prejudice and Error

If the basis of your investigation is a belief that witchcraft is the source of social problems, you’ll probably find some witches soon: Mistaken identity is always a risk when a witch-hunt hysteria takes hold, and the hunt for “hate” in the Trump era has produced a mob mentality that rivals 17th-century Salem. Just ask […]

‘Learn to Code’ and the Collapse of the Millennial SJW Clickbait Bubble

  If you don’t know what Iowahawk is mocking, this week has seen a wave of layoffs in Internet journalism, including Huffington Post: The Huffington Post began laying off employees Thursday as part of its parent company Verizon Media Group’s corporate restructuring plans. HuffPost employees started receiving calendar invitations to meet with human resources in […]

‘Get It First, Get It Right’

The six-word slogan of The Washington Times under the editorship of Wes Pruden should be drilled into the mind of everyone who wants to be taken seriously in the news business. Mister Pruden hated blogs and was not an enthusiast for the concept of “citizen journalism.” (He hated the pretentious word “journalist,” and preferred “newsman.” […]

‘This Tragic Epidemic’

One of the things I used to do when I was on the campaign trail was to use my blog as a sort of notebook, where I’d pile up stuff during the day and then, in the evening, cannibalize this raw product to produce my American Spectator column. So after Thursday’s “Transgender Victimhood Narrative Update,” […]

‘The Idioms of Non-Argument’

Harvard-educated totalitarian Moira Weigel. Longtime readers know I’ve never been a fan of Conor Friedersdorf, who made himself obnoxious by his pro-Obama “conservatism” circa 2008. Friedersdorf’s basic problem is excessive sincerity — he was guilty of “insufficient cynicism,” as I said, and seemed to be engaged in a campaign to obtain the Most Serious Intellectual […]

‘The Truth About Who Kills Women’

  It is probably unwise for a feminist to employ the word “truth,” which may provoke someone familiar with the relevant facts: Jessica Valenti is a feminist and a liar, but I repeat myself. A couple of weeks ago, Valenti invited scrutiny of her truthfulness by responding to the murder of a young woman in […]

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