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Joshua Benton

@joshuabenton.com
12K followers 2.5K following 739 posts

21st-century media and the 19th-c American South. Founded and ran @niemanlab.org at @harvard.edu for 12 yrs; now the senior writer there. Cajun, dad of two, husband of one. Journalist with a history problem. Also: @theatlantic.com, @washingtonpost.com, etc

PostsRepliesMedia
Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 5h
Louisiana sheriff's deputies "accidentally" arrested a local Black mayor this weekend. Sheriff: "Long story short, we made a booboo." www.klfy.com/local/st-lan...
klfy.com
St. Landry Parish deputy error led to wrongful arrest of Melville Mayor
OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY)– St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz confirmed that deputies mistakenly arrested Melville Mayor Caretta Robertson. The apprehension was unauthorized, as officers wer…
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 29/09/2026
I think I'm going to adopt the LLM concept of "knowledge cutoffs" for whole segments of my life Like, my contemporary popular music knowledge cutoff is June 2014 My ACC basketball knowledge cutoff is April 2017
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 22/09/2026
Me being cranky about David Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, and Margaret Thatcher in @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
David Ellison Will Get Control of CNN After All
And don’t pretend an “independent editorial board” will mean otherwise
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John Schwartz @jswatz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"No matter how well-intentioned the members of these committees may be, if David Ellison wants to get around them, he will. It’s an artificial set of rules that a billionaire owner will inevitably circumvent. These 'independent' boards are PR gestures, not vehicles for editorial protection."
niemanlab.org
David Ellison will get control of CNN after all (and don’t pretend an “independent editorial board” will mean otherwise)
In exchange for dropping their lawsuit against Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, state AGs have negotiated "independent" oversight of CNN. You shouldn't expect much oversight.
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Greg Greene (he/him/his) @greene.haus · 21/09/2026
"This particular move … [has] been a part of past news company acquisitions where concerns about antitrust or editorial control end up being downshifted into similar (and mostly toothless) 'boards.' Their effectiveness has been, to be generous, extremely limited." Quite.
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Jason D. Salvagni @salvagni.org · 21/09/2026
This is absolutely the correct reading of this decision.
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Renee DiResta (@noupside.bsky.social) and Dean Jackson published a new paper explaining how the "censorship industrial complex" propaganda campaign took shape & was eventually used to dismantle election information resilience infrastructure in the U.S. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<em>Public Administration Review</em> | ASPA Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper examines how a propaganda frame alleging the existence of a “Censorship Industrial Complex” was institutionalized and then helped justify the dismantling of US election information resilie...
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Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I have to agree.
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wkash917 @wkash917.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Great backgrounder on how "likely" an "independent editorial board" will preserve CNN's independence under David Ellison's Paramount acquisition deal. (As Rupert Murdoch demonstrated: Don't bet on it!) www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/davi...
niemanlab.org
David Ellison will get control of CNN after all (and don’t pretend an “independent editorial board” will mean otherwise)
In exchange for dropping their lawsuit against Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, state AGs have negotiated "independent" oversight of CNN. You shouldn't expect much oversight.
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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Harvard’s @niemanlab.org with a very spooky headline www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/davi...
niemanlab.org
David Ellison will get control of CNN after all (and don’t pretend an “independent editorial board” will mean otherwise)
In exchange for dropping their lawsuit against Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, state AGs have negotiated "independent" oversight of CNN. You shouldn't expect much oversight.
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 21/09/2026
New by me —> David Ellison is gonna have control of CNN, and don't pretend any "independent editorial board" will mean otherwise. (With an extended tour of the Rupert Murdoch Cinematic Universe) www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/davi...
niemanlab.org
David Ellison will get control of CNN after all (and don’t pretend an “independent editorial board” will mean otherwise)
In exchange for dropping their lawsuit against Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, state AGs have negotiated "independent" oversight of CNN. You shouldn't expect much oversight.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Don’t. Print. Lies. In. The. Newspapers. 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
👇 Also, he fell for Bari Weiss’ fake university grift in the first place, before deciding that would be a bad idea
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Jonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 19/09/2026
Virginia Heffernan reviews Steven Pinker's new book. www.thenerve.news/p/steven-pin...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Bari Weiss and David Ellison thought their changes to CBS would be popular. Elon Musk thought his changes to Twitter would be popular. For years, they claimed they spoke for The People, forced into wokeness by the leftist elites who control everything. They said that because they believe it.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 16/09/2026
More honest would be, "we finally succeeded in destroying public trust in your institution, now give it to us."
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 16/09/2026
This almost always consists of conservatives saying "people no longer trust your institution" after spending decades doing everything they can to destroy trust in the institution. True of the press, true of academia, true of public health.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 13/09/2026
the way to understand a piece like this from schmitz is that he lives in an urban, cosmopolitan millieu and the popularity of country music is a novelty to him. and so to explain it, he has to fit it into his volkish conception of america, whether or not that makes any actual sense.
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The NYT opinion section is very committed to the mission of finding the deep core of legitimate grievance that supposedly underlies right wing populism and/or Trumpism.
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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Great use of @mediacloud.bsky.social data: @joshuabenton.com found few outlets have taken up "Gulf of America" renaming www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/trum...
niemanlab.org
Trump can’t get the media to use “Gulf of America.” Will “Lake America” be any different?
Even the news sites Republicans prefer have gone back to calling it the Gulf of Mexico most of the time. And the trend line is not in Trump's favor.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 13/09/2026
Ironically, the only reason this viscerally stupid column got published at all is the Times' affirmative action for conservatives.
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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Ironically a good argument for DEI is “it would help the NYT find someone other than a Princeton grad, suit wearing right wing magazine editor dweeb to write about rural America” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/o...
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is the worst thing that’s ever been written but I do love the idea that rap music now represents a stifling all encompassing HR bureaucracy, I reject the Yin Yang Twins attempts to get me to dress in business casual clothing and spend all day in an office being lectured to
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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
MASSIVE SCOOP! Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin @justinelliott.bsky.social Brett Murphy @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social
propublica.org
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
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WRMS Traffic & Weather Reporter on the 2’s @carnegro.blacksky.app · 13/09/2026
I missed FAMU honoring Dolly Parton at Miami Friday night.
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Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Look, let's not pretend that this based on anything more than bigotry. But we should never forget that people who take on the duty of giving legal counsel to hated defendants are doing the work that makes America a free country. They should never pay a social or political cost for doing so.
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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Good times for scholars of the long 19th century, now returning to join us again
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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This "Republicanism packaged as a gen Z hostage video" show has the real potential to become the Thought Catalog of the late 2020s. thank you jeff bezos.
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Nieman Lab @niemanlab.org · 08/09/2026
Twenty years into the Facebook News Feed era, Australia wants to turn back the clock www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/twen...
niemanlab.org
Twenty years into the Facebook News Feed era, Australia wants to turn back the clock
Want your favorite social media platform to just show you your friends' posts — not a bunch of unrelated things it thinks you'll like? Australia wants to make that mandatory.
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 08/09/2026
One of the most enraging pieces I've read in a while: Idiot YouTubers are trying to reach uncontacted tribes and teach them the wonders of bacterial pneumonia www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘This is colonialism for clicks’: the influencers attempting to meet and film the world’s most isolated tribes
A new breed of adventurer is chasing internet fame by targeting uncontacted peoples. Critics say they are risking the wellbeing of these remote communities – and their own lives
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 07/09/2026
You will never convince me that Nathan Fielder is not one of his generation's greatest artists www.vanityfair.com/story/nathan...
vanityfair.com
Nathan Fielder's Elizabeth Holmes Doc Met With Shock and Awe at Secret Screening
”I really am struggling to this day to understand exactly what I experienced,” says Fielder, who lived with the Theranos founder and her family in the days leading up to her imprisonment.
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Tommy Tomlinson @tommytomlinson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
So here's a quote from @pablo.show that applies to not only his Clippers investigation but the best of what journalism can be: www.nytimes.com/athletic/756...
"I think that we have the ability to do something that the rest of our culture is yearning for, which is make people who are too rich to care about anything resembling the public interest worry that maybe they need to tell us the truth."
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David Daniel @daviddaniel.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
From @joshuabenton.com in @niemanlab.org: "While Donald Trump can get Google and Apple to follow orders, getting any media uptake of 'Lake America' outside MAGA outlets will be a struggle."
niemanlab.org
Trump can’t get the media to use “Gulf of America.” Will “Lake America” be any different?
Even the news sites Republicans prefer have gone back to calling it the Gulf of Mexico most of the time. And the trend line is not in Trump's favor.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Interested to see which parts of the UK media will lead the charge to remove this Cambridge professor? Which types of misconduct are worthy of punishment? channel4news.substack.com/p/exclusive-...
At another meeting, while discussing a near-identical polling scheme to what the undercover team had already paid for, Mr Orr said that “if there was any way of seeing it, it would technically be a donation-in-kind” but added: “Is anybody gonna find out? Am I gonna tell anyone... obviously not, so the reality is we could easily get away with it.”

He also joked that they could “literally do the old John Le Carré - you print it off, put it in a brown envelope, drop it off somewhere.”

Mr Orr suggested there would be little chance of consequences because the proposal was only for “technical breaches” of rules and the Electoral Commission was “completely useless”. He also said the regulator was “so dumb and ineffective”. They did not go through with the specific plan for polling discussed at that meeting.
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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I’m so angry that I have to admit that both the Trump DOJ and fucking OpenAI are right in this case. The NYT and every other major news outlet depends on fair use. If the NYT wins this case it will eviscerate fair use. Copyright maximalism won’t save us from AI harms. It will bake them in
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Both Bellingcat and I were targeted specifically in this witch hunt, and they've come up with absolutely nothing, but I'm sure Matt Taibbi, Mike Benz and pals will still keep publishing their fantasies about the censorship-industrial complex rather than admitting they were wrong.
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Probably the best breakdown of the "censorship industrial complex" conspiracy theory that I've seen. Here's a gift link: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
The MAGA Right Is Only Pretending to Be Censored
The conspiracy theory that persists even though no evidence supports it
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Celeste Headlee @celesteheadlee.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"The fraud allegations come months after we reported that the professor had a longstanding relationship w/ Epstein. Ariely was named 636 times in files released by the DOJ pertaining to Epstein. All of Ariely’s interactions with Epstein came after the financier was convicted of soliciting a minor."
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
hmmm...what it is about this guy that isn't catching the attention of the people who are sometimes really concerned about academic fraud...you know, people who swarm other profs at the slightest rumor, even when it's a guy whose work they don't know anything about...can't quite put my finger on it
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
They’re just doing it for fun. They have all these planes and missiles; they want to live out their special-operator Call of Duty fantasies; the targets are poor and brown, which makes the power fantasy hit even harder. Killing for sport at an industrial scale.
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 03/09/2026
New by me—> Trump wants the media to call Lake Ontario "Lake America." But it hasn't worked with the "Gulf of America." U.S. news outlets — even the ones that Republicans prefer — have been steadily increasing their preference for "Gulf of Mexico." www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/trum...
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 03/09/2026
New by me—> Trump wants the media to call Lake Ontario "Lake America." But it hasn't worked with the "Gulf of America." U.S. news outlets — even the ones that Republicans prefer — have been steadily increasing their preference for "Gulf of Mexico." www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/trum...
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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
It was great to talk to @joshuabenton.com about ProPublica’s expansion into California. Go west: With a new operation in California, ProPublica continues its expansion outside Manhattan
niemanlab.org
Go west: With a new operation in California, ProPublica continues its expansion outside Manhattan
"I think with Trump's first election in 2016, it became painfully clear to the media broadly that you can't just look at the world primarily from the coasts."
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Pablo Torre @pablo.show · 03/09/2026
Thank you, guys, for consuming our reporting. Here's our new episode reacting to the NBA ruling: www.youtube.com/live/ENBv21u...
youtube.com
REACTING LIVE TO KAWHI LEONARD, STEVE BALLMER, CLIPPERS PUNISHMENTS WITH PABLO TORRE
YouTube video by PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Totalitarianism differs from authoritarianism, Hannah Arendt wrote, since conventional authoritarians want power and corrupt benefits—and mostly leave people alone if they don’t get in the way—while totalitarians reach into the private sphere, aiming to forcibly control what everyone says and does.
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Clare Spencer @clarespencer.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
@joshuabenton.com notes the WSJ's reaction as a shift in culture around using AI for writing "What made this episode different is that neither Druckenmiller nor Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot offered any regrets or shame."
niemanlab.org
Are newspaper opinion sections embracing AI-written op-eds?
Outside The Wall Street Journal, it appears not.
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Peter Luca Versteegen @versteegenluca.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🚨🚨 New publication: 🚨🚨 Does affective polarization (AP) change citizens’ willingness to support democratic norms or participate? 🧵1/10 Full paper here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Cool Citizens? How Affectively Unpolarized Citizens View and Participate in Democracy - Political Behavior
Does affective polarization change how citizens view and participate in democracy? We posit that the answer to this crucial question depends on how affectively unpolarized citizens view and participat...
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Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Yes—it’s been 12 years (!) and this remains one of the most prescient pieces of media criticism ever written. And everything has only gotten worse. deadspin.com/the-future-o...
deadspin.com
Deadspin | The Future Of The Culture Wars Is Here, And It&#39;s Gamergate
Deadspin | The Future Of The Culture Wars Is Here, And It&#39;s Gamergate
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
This is good advice from @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social, & I’m going to draft off it to suggest there is a species of pundits who are bad in a very specific way & learning to ignore them is imperative to your wellbeing. Knowing what not to read without reading it is a life hack.
e-flux.com
The Useful Narcissist - Journal #163
Matt Seybold on the fate of public intellectuals in the age of social media.
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