March 3, 2026
Media; Corruption; Artificial intelligence; Doing right; Social media; Potpourri
Media
Corruption
Artificial intelligence
Doing right
Social media
Potpourri
Media
I can see why people are also losing trust in the traditional elite media.
And I think a lot of it is because the leaders of those newsrooms – in the name of what they call “objectivity” – have too often engaged in false equivalences that obscure, rather than expose, the truth.
In fact, I think nothing makes people lose trust in news organizations as much as when they’ve seen something with their own eyes — and then see news coverage that doesn’t comport with what they themselves experienced.
Case in point: Legacy media coverage of the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of an ICE agent earlier this week.
Millions of people watched the video that clearly shows that Good, a 37-year-old mother of three driving an SUV, was not the aggressor.
And yet – because the constantly lying Trump administration is insisting against all evidence that she was — the coverage treats that like a debatable point.
https://criticalread.substack.com/p/at-the-times-and-the-post-solid-reporting
The Washington Post published an article from Thursday by Isaac Arnsdorf, headlined: “Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency.” The subhead reads: “Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.”
Here’s the first paragraph:
Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.
Let me be clear: I’m glad the Post ran this story. What it describes is highly alarming. The public should know about it.
But where in the article does Arnsdorf actually explain what’s so alarming about it? …
So let me rewrite that for you.
The headline should have been: “Extremists urge Trump to claim election power based on fictitious national emergency.”
The first paragraph should have been:
Far-right activists who say they are coordinating with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order declaring a national emergency based on false claims that China interfered in the 2020 election and asserting vast presidential power over how Americans get to vote. …
Our top reporters frequently uncover shocking news about this deeply abnormal administration. But they evidently worry that being too blunt about what they’ve found would violate their newsroom culture, which prizes neutrality. They only tell part of the truth, and they count on the readers to fill in the blanks. They should be braver than that.
https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-investigations-february-impact
5 Investigations Sparking Change This Month
A push for more transparency on drug labels. Clearer guidance for doctors in Texas on how to legally provide abortions. Here’s a look at some recent impact from our newsroom.
Corruption
https://x.com/mkraju/status/2026738716102865293
GOP Rep. Nehls says Tony Gonzales shouldn’t resign [over allegations of impropriety] because doing so would be “the stupidest thing he could ever do” given the razor-thin House GOP majority.
Aren’t some things bigger than politics?
“No,” Nehls told me. “Not up here, not the way we do what we do in the House.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/elite-accountability-powerful-impunity/686134/
How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account
Our national project of elite impunity
The logic of the Roberts Court’s quest to legalize white-collar crime led to Trump v. United States, which decided in 2024 that the president is basically entitled to commit whatever crimes he wants in the course of his “official duties,” and which successfully shields Trump and potentially future presidents from federal criminal prosecution for any “official” actions while in office. This was comically framed by the right-wing justices as protecting democracy, rather than undermining it.
Although some of these decisions were more defensible than others, together they suggest a pattern of elite class solidarity: powerful people making sure that powerful people rarely face real consequences. …
Unfortunately, many Americans who might have been outraged at this edifice of impunity have instead directed their resentment toward the poor and weak, supporting a cruel and unforgiving system of criminal justice that harshly punishes those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder while exempting many at the top from any accountability at all.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UN_FtDrnn25aZwlboray8tL1iRVr4iOi/view
Hillary Clinton opening statement:
The [Oversight] Committee justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Let me be as clear as I can. I do not. …
Mr. Chairman, your investigation is supposed to be assessing the federal government’s handling of the investigations and prosecutions of Epstein and his crimes. You subpoenaed eight law enforcement officials, all of whom ran the Department of Justice or directed the FBI when Epstein’s crimes were investigated and prosecuted. Of those eight, only one appeared before the Committee. Five of the six former attorneys general were allowed to submit brief statements stating they had no information to provide.
You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, including today, despite espousing the need for transparency on dozens of occasions.
You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files. And when you did, not a single Republican Member showed up for Les Wexner’s deposition.
This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors, as well as the public who also want to get to the bottom of this matter. …
If this Committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.
https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2026/02/20260227-clinton-opening-statement.pdf
President Clinton’s opening statement
I’m here today for two reasons. The first is that I love my country. And America was built upon the idea that no person is above the law, even Presidents - especially Presidents. …
The second reason I’m here is that the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-27-2026
On MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” panelists noted that while [Hillary] Clinton didn’t know Epstein, there are many photos of First Lady Melania Trump with him, along with her husband and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Host Joe Scarborough said “Comer got the wrong first lady.” And, he added, “today he’s got the wrong president.”
Artificial intelligence
Block says AI will let it cut more than 4,000 jobs. Some argue that’s not the whole story.
AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations
Leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases
Doing right
Good Samaritans sprang into action to save baby that fell into Belmont Harbor
Social media
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/02/meta-child-safety-documents-instagram/686163/
Meta Says It Cares About Kids. New Documents Tell a Different Story.
For years, employees acknowledged a problem with potential child groomers, but prioritized growth over fixes.
Potpourri
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/are-we-living-in-the-age-of-epstein
I started seeing Trumpism’s arrival through the metaphor of a kaleidoscope. In the ones my kids own, translucent plastic pieces tumble into new designs as the barrel rotates, creating patterns that, after periods of hesitation, click into place. Politics, I came to think, were a kind of dark kaleidoscope. Familiar fears and anxieties shifted until they assumed novel, captivating configurations. Trumpism was such a pattern. It was a grim vision of society that didn’t make sense logically but, for some, held together for reasons of emotion or identity. If there really was a class of unaccountable, libertine global élites plundering the world, then wasn’t Trump obviously a member? You weren’t bothered by such questions if you liked what you saw through the kaleidoscope. For you, Trump was the one spinning the barrel—an observer of the pattern, rather than a part of it.
A kaleidoscope is always shifting, with new patterns coming into focus. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has been fascinating and horrifying onlookers for more than a decade; in addition to being an actual set of appalling events that involved real perpetrators and real victims, it’s been a political wild card and a conspiratorial lure. But it’s only recently—with the release of millions of documents, which anyone can read for themselves—that its pieces have really snapped into place. Trump, for many, is now inside its pattern, along with a lot of other people, organizations, and institutions. A different dark vision of society has emerged. Suddenly, we seem to be living in the age of Epstein. We tell ourselves that by understanding his rise to power we might understand the world.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/trumps-childish-state-of-the-union/686133/
Given the intentional abuse of Congress’s time and hospitality last night, the next speaker, if there is a different next speaker, should consider very hard whether to extend another such invitation. … Next January, the next speaker could do everyone a favor with a letter that begins: “Dear Mr. President, the time has come for your State of the Union message. Please send it in writing in the enclosed envelope. Congress will give it all the attention it deserves. This is the method that was good enough for Rutherford B. Hayes, and, Mr. Trump, it is more than good enough for you.”
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/how-i-got-past-massie-derangement
“There’s the kind [of Trump Derangement Syndrome] where you hate him so much it’s irrational, and even if he’s for something you support, you’d still be against him,” [Rep.] Massie said. And then there’s the kind where “you love him so much that when he goes against something he said he would do, or he does something that’s against your principles, you change your own principles to support him. And I think that’s just as dangerous. And I try not to have either of the Trump Derangement Syndromes.”
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/borrowed-valor-at-the-state-of-the-union-trump-military-medal-honor
Among those who serve, there is a term—“stolen valor”—for those who falsely claim service or honors they did not earn. The president certainly did not commit that offense. But there is a related danger: co-opting the military’s credibility to compensate for the absence of strategic clarity. When leaders wrap themselves in service members’ esteem while avoiding hard discussions about missions, costs, and risks, they borrow the military’s trust without assuming the responsibility that accompanies it. …
The structure and tone of the [State of the Union] speech suggested a strategy focused on domestic politics at the expense of the country’s interests. By highlighting heroism, the president associated his administration with valor. By leaning on emotional moments, he filled the space where policy clarity might otherwise reside. By focusing security discourse inward and repeatedly stating he had solved eight wars while ignoring the Russian invasion of Ukraine or a potential action against Iran, he redirected attention from myriad global security challenges.
These may be effective political techniques, but they do not provide a clear vision. Because applause is not a strategy. Borrowed valor is not leadership. And ceremony, however moving, cannot substitute for governing in a dangerous world.