Episode 81: Election Fallout/ Mike Pesca
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When Tuesday’s election results came in, Newsweek invited Josh to assess the victory of New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. In today’s episode, he explains why he called it a terrible, dangerous turn in U.S. politics.
Big media like The New York Times celebrated the news, of course. Josh explains that the Times had an “Oops, I Did it Again” moment when a high-ranking journalist let the mask drop — and then tried to put it back on.
Then, a guest joins Josh to explore a bigger question: How did we get here? Why does the media warn about anti-democratic movements on the right while running cover for those on the left? Fellow NPR alum Mike Pesca, host of the podcast The Gist, helps explain how news agencies lost their way. He also discusses his firing from a national news agency. Josh explains why Mike’s experience is a window into anti-journalistic thinking in newsrooms.
Episode 80: Ballroom Lies & Mamdani’s Pass
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The story of a renovation at the White House and the planned creation of a big ballroom is the perfect example of how media failures have left people in the dark. Depending on someone’s media bubble, they’ve either heard that Trump launched a destructive, crazy expensive vanity project that might even be illegal, or that it’s just a long awaited change and the left is freaking freaking out about nothing. Today, Josh pieces through the mess to get you the facts.
Also, news organizations generally play up a candidate’s past offensive remarks and actions — but not when it comes to antisemitism on the left. Then the mainstream media isn’t interested. And if other people make it a story, the media frames the candidate as a victim. Josh provides proof involving New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, who expressed his love for convicted funders of terrorism and praised an imam with ties to radical Islam.
Plus, a student leader who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination might actually face a consequence despite the media’s effort to run cover for him.
Episode 79: Judging Failures
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When businesses judge their achievements at the end of each year, they generally look at financial figures. But what about organizations that exist primarily to serve a crucial societal purpose? There, the metrics are usually different. They assess their impact.
Not so for news agencies. Instead, big media look at audience figures and awards — which say nothing about providing the truth. Today, Josh digs into this problem. He explains how new annual awards could hold the media to account, and how we can make them happen.
Also, questions have been pouring in from supporters of the show following the last two episodes. Josh answers several, explains what’s true, and teaches you what to look for in a news story to be on guard against lies.
Plus, what the media is leaving out of its coverage of a Trump fiasco at the CDC.
Episode 78: Hostages: A Media Reckoning
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This week, the world has seen the release of the 20 living, remaining hostages in Gaza, celebrations in Gaza for the return of convicted terrorists, and what’s being called the end of the Israel-Gaza war. “It’s all taking place against a backdrop of profound media failure,” Josh explains in this episode. “We can’t really understand what’s happening without understanding how the media has twisted everything, lengthening this war and helping the hostage takers hold on to them in hellish captivity for all this time.”
It’s not just about one war. All the tactics that led to October 7th are being adopted by other Islamist terrorist groups around the world. Without the media helping people understand the truth, the world won’t act or prepare.
Today, Josh shows you how the media usually presents hostage situations, and how it refused to follow the same template this time. It’s a major shift involving false equivalence and downplaying heroics. It also explains why virtually no one in the media is asking a crucial question right now — one that affects how the United States, European countries, and other countries deal with terrorists in the future. Did we just end an era?
Plus, the best known figure on a global news network actually apologizes. If only she’d do the same for her other lies.
Episode 77: October 7th: The Big Picture
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Today marks the second anniversary of the biggest terrorist massacre per capita in modern times. Josh explains how the media has presented the October 7th terrorist attacks in Israel, and the war ever since, with blinders on. By ignoring the big picture, it has convinced billions of people to believe in a false reality.
October 7th, 2023, was a story of mass terror, mass rape, and mass killing by Iran-backed Hamas and other Gazan terrorists. It was also a story of bicycles, musical instruments, kites, compassion, hope, and survival. And it was a story of the biggest threat to democracies. Everything people in Israel faced that day, including the forces behind it, is spreading across the world.
In this special episode, Josh does what the media won’t: He puts October 7th in context. He introduces you to survivors whose stories of living through unimaginable hell are unforgettable. He also takes you to Iraq, Australia, Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom. To prevent the next October 7th anywhere on Earth, we have to understand it.
Episode 76: The Censorship Line
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When does pressure from someone in the government become censorship? That might be the most important question surrounding some of the biggest news stories right now. But the media doesn’t even seem to be asking it, let alone trying to answer it.
Today, Josh explains a new Pentagon policy that is so obviously against press freedoms that even a Fox analyst is calling out. Meanwhile, some headlines say that Google is accusing the Biden administration of having exerted “censorship pressure.” But is that what Google’s saying?
Plus, Kamala Harris is out with a book, and her first interview showed some problems with the media. Meanwhile, on another network, an overall good conversation should remind the anchor to take his own advice. And Josh discusses news coverage of partisan violence, efforts to avert a government shutdown, and yet another proposal to end the war in Gaza.
Episode 75: Hypocrisy on Violence
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There are real dangers of lasting, deadly political violence from both ends of America’s polarized society. The media has played a huge role in getting us here. While big mainstream news organizations have been calling out violence on the right, they’ve been ignoring and fueling it on the left.
Today, Josh shows how the media has parsed through controversial words from slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk while extolling a far-left figure who supports, praises, and celebrates terrorism. What Hasan Piker says is “graphic and demented,” Josh explains. Also, a survey of college students finds a massive spike in support for violence — and shows the far left has been “the most accepting of violence” for years.
All this is context for the battle surrounding late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Josh discusses an opportunity Kimmel has if he chooses to take it. Plus: a professional actor responds to last week’s episode, and the BBC punishes its own presenter for saying something true.
Episode 74: Homicide Politics
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In covering political violence and homicides, the media keeps missing one of its most important responsibilities. Today, Josh explains how an obsession with politics has been poisoning not only the coverage of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s killing, but also the killing of a young woman on light rail in North Carolina.
It boils down to a key question of whether we’re going to move forward as a society or not. To help you understand this, Josh looks at the attempted assassination of author Salman Rushdie, the assassination of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., and a problematic line journalists use when discussing violence and mental health.
Also, an American news network fired an analyst following Kirk’s death. In context, his remarks seem different from what made the rounds on social media. But the incident raises a larger question about how the news handles early reports of gunfire.
Plus the BBC runs cover for a student leader who celebrated Kirk’s assassination, stars preach hatred at the Emmys, and the leading study on political violence in America shows how antisemitism fuels it on both ends of the political spectrum.
Episode 73: Doha, Putin & Propaganda
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As the media “blows it” in coverage of the war between Israel and terrorists, another story is getting buried: the incomparably huger death toll in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Today, Josh takes you inside that reporting to show how the media can follow basic editorial standards when it wants to. You’ll also hear how journalists remind audiences of the war’s origins and describe Putin.
The media assails “propaganda” from certain countries, especially on Twitter, while simultaneously reporting propaganda as fact. Josh tells you about an international organization for journalists, beloved by the media, that recently organized a propaganda campaign of its own. Some big news agencies took part — and none called out the hypocrisy.
Also, Josh ties up a couple of loose ends from previous episodes, involving jury selection and a survey of Americans during wartime.
Episode 72: School Shooting Bombardments
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When horrific school shootings and other mass shootings happen, the media swarms onto the scene. This leads to problems and controversies. One is the propensity to give perpetrators the attention they crave, which fuels further attacks. Today, Josh explains that while the media has made some improvements on this, it has done very little about another issue: the use of photos and videos, particularly of children, in the aftermath.
The law does not offer the protections that many parents believe. Today you’ll hear someone who survived an elementary school shooting explain how the media reawakens trauma for decades to come. And the father of a young man killed in a mass shooting says what it takes to get news agencies to listen.
Then, Josh tells you about a big shift taking place among three of the nation’s biggest newspapers. They’re moving in opposite directions, signaling a change at the heart of U.S. media. One owned by Rupert Murdoch is standing up to Trump, while two traditionally liberal papers are pulling punches. In preparing for this episode, Josh discovered something about one of these papers that he’s never seen before.
Episode 71: Correcting Ezra Klein
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Listeners asked for it: a fact check of some claims by the New York Times’ Ezra Klein. Today, Josh explores how Klein misrepresents data, mischaracterizes large groups of people, and ignores truths that disprove his assertions. You’ll hear how Klein even invoked Nazi-era Germans in an act of “privilege” that maligned the vast majority of Israeli Jews.
Also, more on the battle between Ronan Farrow and Matt Lauer. You’ll hear what Farrow’s failures mean for The New Yorker, and why his defenders engage in a form of bigotry called “youngism.” Also, how journalists at some big news agencies “put their cards on the table” by openly assigning victimhood.
Plus, why the Pulitzers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. And an important message to those who want to believe everything Klein says.
Episode 70: Farrow v. Lauer
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A public battle between two former NBC employees serves as a window into the toxic mess of big media. Today, Josh pries that window open for you.
When Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill” came out, it contained explosive allegations against Matt Lauer, former host of Today (known as “The Today Show”). A woman was accusing Lauer of rape. While much of the media treated the book as gospel, a writer at a website was willing to take a critical look. Soon, working with Lauer, he helped uncover gaping holes in Farrow’s “reporting.” Finally, one person at a major newspaper wrote a story about just some of those failings.
This is a story of how victim narratives have supplanted a search for truth. It’s about a crucial rule of fact checking, particularly in cases like this. It’s about the media’s need to accept that even someone it wants to like can be wrong. And it’s about perhaps the biggest fact-checking failure of all in today’s media ecosystem: books that are supposed to be nonfiction.