Society

All dressed up with nowhere to go? You might just be one of the self-isolating singles meeting a potential new beau via video chat. Those unlucky enough to be quarantined without a significant other during the coronavirus crisis are seeking companionship (and killing boredom) by swiping incessantly on dating apps like Tinder and Hinge. But what do you do once you have a match? Social distancing recommendations have effectively killed grabbing a coffee or cocktails, and texting can only take a budding relationship so far. Instead, tech savvy youngsters are hopping on Skype, Zoom or other live streaming video services to determine if their sofa sparks are the real deal. Look, first dates are pretty awful.

Video conferences are like all business meetings — 95 percent pointless and usually arranged and dominated by some self-important twerp. Still, humans attach strange importance to management habits and, now that we are living in the age of the coronavirus, many of us will have to do a lot more video conferences for work. Ever the public servant, Cockburn has compiled the following guide to video conference etiquette. 1) Dress Cockburn prefers formal attire, yet in times of isolation, the rules can be relaxed. Nudity is too much, no matter how matter impressive one's physique. Pajamas are a no-no, too. Sporting a kaftan on the call may make you feel like a charismatic tech billionaire dialing in from Mustique. But everybody knows you aren’t — so put a shirt on.

If there's one good thing about the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent collective social distancing in the US, it's that families are getting to spend more time together. That is, unless you're one of the brothers Cuomo. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and his CNN anchor brother Chris reignited their intense sibling rivalry on live television Monday night, arguing over which of them is their mom's favorite. Andrew kicked off the nostalgic debate by comparing the coronavirus lockdown to a curfew implemented by his father, Mario, when he was a kid: 'I don't like the word "curfew." Dad tried to have a curfew for me, I never got past the resentment. But I do believe you'll see more heightening if the numbers don't slow.

Imagine if during the height of the Cold War, a media already combative against President Reagan was also heavily invested in the Soviet Union financially. Pretend the Soviet Union could leverage vast amounts of propaganda using our entertainment, news and print media as Reagan told them to tear down the Berlin Wall. Due to either a complicit corporate media in America, China is presently engaged in a highly organized propaganda war against the United States, not dissimilar from that analogy. As COVID-19 spreads across the United States, mainstream outlets are publishing Chinese state apologia across the web, and China is leveraging their clear influence over these markets, using the Hong Kong protest blackouts as a blueprint.

Welcome to the age of coronavirus, where lines snake around the aisles of supermarkets, millennials beg their boomer parents to stop going outside and the best sporting event on television is 10-pin bowling. America almost feels like a different country. Cockburn has seen a heartening amount of concern for loved ones over the last few days, especially among fellow journalists. To put minds at rest, therefore, he's been asking around to see what measures right-leaning outlets are taking to protect their employees from the virus. Across Rupert Murdoch's titles, the response has been robust. Workers at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post had the option to work from home last week, with a lot of editorial staff deciding to do so.

Cockburn was sad to learn that W. James Antle III, the highly esteemed editor of the American Conservative (TAC), has parted ways with the magazine after little more than a year at the helm. Antle is a terrifically gifted journalist and a dexterous thinker who has contributed many fine pieces to The Spectator in his time.TAC is one of the best magazines in the world — Cockburn does not make such compliments lightly — and Antle has steered the publication to new heights. It has in recent years flourished into a hugely influential voice on the American right: its influence on Trumpism is unmistakable.Cockburn, busybody that he is, has asked around to find out what caused Antle’s sudden departure, but TAC staff are being impressively tight-lipped.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was notably absent from his network’s primary election coverage this weekend after a one-two punch of an uncomfortable interview and a sexual misconduct allegation before ultimately 'retiring' from the network Monday night. But everyone is missing the real reason the Hardball host was pulled off the air.'After a conversation with MSNBC, I decided tonight will be my last Hardball, so let me tell you why,' Matthews told viewers during his opening monologue Monday. 'The younger generation is out there ready to take the reins. We see them in politics, in the media, in fighting for the causes ..compliments on a women's appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK, were never OK. Not then and certainly not today.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is the Democratic frontrunner, and boy, MSNBC is not happy.As the Nevada caucus results rolled in Saturday, commentators on the network, visibly annoyed, compared a Sanders victory to France being invaded by Nazi Germany, warned of his supporters using 'dark arts', said that it might be better for moderate Democrats if Trump won instead of Sanders, and called Sanders voters a 'squeaky, angry minority'.Chris Matthews, who was responsible for the off-color World War Two analogy (and is now facing calls to step down over it), also recently panicked on air about being executed in Central Park by 'Castro and the Reds' when discussing why Sanders calls himself a socialist.

Attorney and former media darling Michael Avenatti was convicted on two charges of extortion against Nike last Friday. His fate caused a deathly silence among some of the anti-Trump, cable news anchors who not so long ago were venerating him as a president-in-waiting. Former GOP ad men who were once flirting with running Avenatti for president were no longer returning phone calls. Avenatti was left abandoned in handcuffs, his invite to this year’s Sag Harbor Soirée lost in the mail. Alas, he’s no longer the holy spirit or the savior of the republic. Just a couple of days later, the establishment media — particularly CNN — had found their mea culpa on Avenatti; his months-long stardom was, of course, the fault of President Donald Trump.

There is nothing writers love to write about more than writers. We are an extraordinarily self-important breed. Find a group of plumbers, office workers or electricians and they will talk about anything except their line of work. When writers come together, though, the subject of conversation is invariably their peers and themselves. But I can hardly talk. Here I am, coming to you today not just to write about writers and writing but to write about a writer writing about writers and writing. (Did you make it through that sentence OK? I'm sorry for inflicting it on you. Have a drink or something. You deserve one.) What have we done to deserve this kind of self-absorption? Writing, at its best, adds a little truth and a little beauty to the world.

Conservative radio host and longtime political commentator Rush Limbaugh announced on his program Monday that he has advanced lung cancer and will be taking time off to receive treatment.Shortly after Limbaugh revealed his diagnosis, prominent leftists rushed to Twitter to celebrate the fact that someone they opposed politically may soon meet an untimely — and likely painful — demise.Former CNN host Reza Aslan, whose show Believer was canceled by CNN after he called the president a 'piece of shit' on Twitter, did a shoddy job of downplaying his joy at the Limbaugh news.‘Ask yourself this simple question: is the world a better place or a worse place with Rush Limbaugh in it?’ Aslan tweeted Monday evening.

After the helicopter crash that killed basketball star Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others, there has been a rash of speculation on social media that helicopters are inherently unsafe to fly. Perhaps the most extreme example is British businessman, Lord Alan Sugar, an experienced pilot, who says he will no longer fly in helicopters because they defy physics. He should know better. After a number of high-profile accidents, it might seem that helicopters have a poor safety record. In 2018, five people died when a helicopter giving a sightseeing tour of New York City crashed into the Hudson river. In the past two years there have been other deaths in Hawaii, the Grand Canyon and Manhattan.

How did you find out about the death of one of sport’s greatest legends? For me, it was while I was cooking dinner and idly scrolling through my phone, waiting for the oven to heat up. I saw a screenshot of a TMZ Instagram story posted to Twitter. 'KOBE BRYANT DEAD IN HELICOPTER CRASH', it blared. I did what anyone else does in this day and age and sent it down my groupchat. I had no idea whether it was true, whether it was a malicious prank, or hack, or anything else. I just wanted to be the one to share it first. As news spread across social media and screenshots turned into shots from the scene in Calabasas, the only certainty seemed to be that no one knew what was going on.

Celebrity is a remarkably enduring and powerful form of prestige. Who can imagine a world without it? Celebrities begin as people, become brands, then expand into empires. We have celebrity restaurateurs who become celebrity chefs and celebrity chefs who become restaurateurs. We have celebrity spin doctors and celebrity CIA analysts. We have celebrity comedians and celebrity revolutionaries; they’re often interviewed by celebrity journalists. We have celebrity architects, celebrity tycoons and celebrity statesmen. We have celebrity children of celebrities; celebrity ballerinas; celebrity vegans; celebrity plumbers; celebrity murderers. For decades celebrity told society stories about itself, some ennobling, some disgraceful.