Jennifer Rubin

Wednesday

Stephen L. Miller

Welcome to the era of personality media

Several high-priced journalists have begun experimenting with selling themselves instead of a corporate media brand. Chris Cillizza and Mark Halperin have both started Substack ventures without having the branding back-up of CNN or Bloomberg. The pair follow in the footsteps of Megyn Kelly, who has been enormously successful in launching her own brand. Don Lemon has been confined to social media as well.Last year, Washington Post tech reporter Taylor Lorenz left corporate media behind to create her own outlet, although I would argue her audience and branding were separate from that of the Post.

Friday

Grace Curley

Will the media carry its snobbery problem into the next Trump era?

At the 92nd Street Y last month, an audience paid actual money to watch the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin record her podcast with Lincoln Project founding member George Conway. Admission was $20 — but can you really put a price on watching two deranged NeverTrumpers cope with the reality of a looming second Trump presidency?  In a set reminiscent of Inside the Actors Studio, Rubin began waxing poetic about why the media is so “mamsy-pamsey.”  This is the same woman who went from calling Barack Obama a “boring gasbag” to claiming his “mere presence reminded us of what a dignified, responsible president sounds like.” She has also performed a well-documented back flip on John Bolton that would make your head spin.

jennifer rubin snobbery

Friday

Cockburn

Jennifer Rubin’s resignation from the Washington Post is surely imminent

The non-endorsement is the new endorsement! Hot on the heels of the Los Angeles Times’s decision not to endorse a candidate in the presidential race, a controversial call made by the paper's owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong that has been met with multiple staff resignations, the Washington Post is following suit. A statement published Friday reads: "The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates." Public statements from leading Post personalities have been aghast. Columnist Karen Attiah tweeted, "Jesus Christ." Then, an hour later, "..." Then an hour later still, "What an absolute stab in the back.

jennifer rubin

Monday

Cockburn

A short list of people who said the lab leak theory was a conspiracy

With the Energy Department joining the lab-leak party, will the apologies ever roll in to those so thoroughly excoriated for questioning the animal-human theory of Covid's origins? Cockburn has done a little digging and would like you to join him on a trip down memory lane, to revisit the litany of enlightened elites who proclaimed the lab-leak theory a conspiracy. From scientists to media talking heads, the condemnation of the lab-leak hypothesis was pretty universal in the early months of the pandemic, even going so far as to proclaim it racist.

second wave lab leak covid

Thursday

Bill Zeiser

Never Trumpers play 4D chess over Russia — and lose

“Pro-democracy” Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin — she long ago ditched the “conservative” descriptor — had a howler of a tweet about foreign policy the other day. On the subject of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Rubin wrote that “we don’t have to guess what Trump would have done – he would have praised Putin and rolled out the red carpet to the rest of Europe. THIS is who the GOP follows.” Rubin was joined in this opinion by novelist Stephen King, who tweeted that “Mr. Putin has made a serious miscalculation. He forgot he is no longer dealing with Trump.” King is right in at least one key respect: Putin is not dealing with Trump. And we need not speculate — contra Rubin’s advice — as to what Trump would have done.

never trumpers

Tuesday

Jay Caruso

Biden’s phony empathy for migrant families

"The cruelty is the point" is a phrase created by The Atlantic's Adam Serwer in an October 2018 essay (it was later expanded into a book). It describes the supposed rejoicing that occurred over Donald Trump's cruel policies, such as the no-tolerance family separations of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers at the Mexican border. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit in 2019, seeking damages for the toll the separations took on migrant families. Other attorneys stepped in to file similar claims on behalf of their clients. In late October 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration was in talks to settle the lawsuits with a whopping figure of $450,000 as a possible high point.

Friday

Grace Curley

Will the media ever be honest about Joe Biden?

Joe Biden usually likes being compared to Donald Trump. During the 2020 presidential campaign the media often contrasted the two figures in order to highlight how much more decent and compassionate and normal Biden is, as opposed to Orange Man. However, the empathizer-in-chief might not be as crazy about the latest parallels emerging thanks to his poll numbers. A headline in Newsweek, not exactly a right-wing rag, reads, “Joe Biden’s Approval Lower Than Donald Trump’s at Same Stage of Presidency: Poll.” The president’s current approval rating according to the Quinnipiac poll is a dismal 33 percent. Considering how slanted these polls can be, the real number might be even worse.

president

Wednesday

Cockburn

Bill Kristol and the political defector grift

Did you hear? Bill Kristol is turning his back on the Republican party! Yes, again. On Tuesday morning, the erstwhile Weekly Standard founder and current editor-at-medium of the Bulwark went to the Washington Post (that newspaper beloved by all conservatives) and announced that, lifelong devout conservative that he is, he just can’t abide Glenn Youngkin as the Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate, and will be voting for Democrat Terry McAuliffe instead. The Post lays it on thick with the headline: 'Conservative Bill Kristol endorses McAuliffe in race for Virginia governor.' See, a conservative is endorsing a Democrat! That shows just how insane the Republican party has gone!

bill kristol

Tuesday

Cockburn

What’s happening to Jennifer Rubin?

Coronavirus claimed a prominent victim in Washington on Monday. No, it wasn’t the President, of course. Instead, the China flu appeared to consume the sanity of Washington Post op-ed writer Jennifer Rubin.Monday evening was a night of surreal political takes all over the place. Erin Burnett compared Trump’s return from Walter Reed with political rallies in North Korea. Joy Reid chose the more euphonic 'Mussolini moment’. Jeb Bush’s former communications director (does any title better convey a lack of expertise than that one?) called it 'the weirdest shit I have ever seen in my life.'Thousands of responses would have landed in Cockburn’s Cringe Hall of Fame just a few years ago, yet on Monday, all of them were mere candles compared to the blazing sun of Rubin.

Jennifer rubin