Americans who tuned into the Republican National Convention were treated to a slickly produced, four-day dispatch from Donald Trump's alternate reality.
Former Trump spox: “The speeches are reminiscent of the speeches one hears at a memorial service where…everyone stretches the truth to say nice things. And we’re all in the audience muttering, ‘Well that's not true, but I get it—what else can you say?’” theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Watching the convention this week, I kept trying to figure out what it reminded me of. Then I realized: It was like a glossier, made-for-TV version of the MAGA Facebook feed I created for myself last fall. This is the info universe many Trump fans inhabit: theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
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I've spent the past year talking to James Murdoch about his father's "twisted" behavior, the mind games at the family-counseling retreat, and the war over Rupert's media empire. You can read our April cover story now: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read this already. Now that I've had some time to breathe, I want to highlight a few of the things I learned while reporting this story...
James Murdoch compares Fox News and similar outlets to Paul von Hindenburg, the German president who enabled Hitler's rise to power. “I underestimated the ability of a profit motive to make people do terrible things—to make companies do terrible things." theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
I spent this spring reporting in Europe, where elected leaders and diplomats are watching the U.S. election with a sense of dread bordering on panic about the prospect of Trump’s return. One word came up repeatedly in my interviews: existential.
Inside the German Foreign Ministry, sources told me, contingency plans are being drawn up for Trump's return. They're also planning for a scenario in which the outcome of the election is uncertain and widespread political violence breaks out in the U.S. theatlantic.com/international/…
The Biden Administration has tried to reassure European allies about America's longterm commitment to NATO, but some officials in Washington acknowledge the effort is futile at this point. theatlantic.com/international/…
I sat in on a series of focus groups to see what Republican primary voters think of Mike Pence. It was absolutely brutal. My story: theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Some quotes I jotted down when Mike Pence came up in the focus groups:
“He’s only gonna get the vote from his family, and I’m not even sure if they like him”
“He has alienated every Republican…It’s over. It’s retirement time"
Of the 34 Republicans who participated across four focus groups, I only heard four people say they’d consider Pence for president—and two of them immediately started talking themselves out of it after indicating interest. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Brutal. The alt-weekly in Colorado Springs—which recently combined with several sister publications—discovered $300K in "unaccounted-for debt" and had to lay off about half its staff. They started a GoFundMe to raise $250K 3 days ago. They've raised $540. gofundme.com/f/save-sixty35…
This gets at one of the most discouraging things I heard from local reporters while writing this piece in 2021. People in their markets still read and relied on their work, but few were interested in rallying to save the local paper from extinction. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
One of the reasons for public ambivalence/apathy is that local newspapers rarely generate the same uncomplicated warmth that, say, a beloved local bakery does. Good journalism, by definition, often annoys people! That doesn't make it less essential.
A fascinating (and kind of hilarious) finding in this Pew survey: Mormons are among the least popular religious groups in America. They are also the only group that expresses a net favorable opinion of *every other group,* including Muslims and atheists. pewresearch.org/religion/2023/…
Mormons: You probably don't like us, but we like you!
I do think it's notable that Mormons have a *far* more favorable opinion of Muslims than any other group does. I once talked to an imam who served in Utah about how local Mormons interacted with his mosque. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…