There is a deep human impulse to whittle reality down into familiar and self-flattering fairy tales. We all gravitate toward information that validates our preconceptions and vindicates our in-groups. It is cognitively taxing to revise one’s model of the world. And it is emotionally uncomfortable to recognize fault in our allies or merit in our […]

Kash Patel has had a long week. The FBI director and frequent social media poster faced scrutiny for how he handled the Charlie Kirk assassination investigation, including from members of his own party. Conservative activist Chris Rufo posted on X: “We would be wise to take a moment and ask whether Kash Patel has what […]

Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t suspended because of poor ratings. He wasn’t suspended because he crossed some ethical red line. He was suspended because the president of the United States decided to make an example of him.  The supposed justification came on Kimmel’s Monday night show. “We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA […]

Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension — the direct result of an FCC threat to pull the licenses of networks that aired him — has shown us how authoritarianism can come to America. I mean this literally. The specific threats that Federal Communications Commission head Brendan Carr made against networks, involving a little-used doctrine called “news distortion,” show how […]

The Trump administration is openly coercing media organizations into suppressing speech that it does not like.  On Monday night, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel (irresponsibly) seemed to suggest that Charlie Kirk’s killer had conservative sympathies, before making several unrelated jokes at Donald Trump’s expense.  Two days later, FCC chair Brendan Carr warned broadcasters that if they […]