It’s Thursday, July 23. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Eli Lake on the Trump administration’s latest First Amendment faux pas. Matt Taibbi on how the government controls your feed. Alex Berenson on why the cyclospora panic is more media fever than public-health crisis. And much more.
But first: Is #MeToo back?
In a matter of months, Cheyenne Hunt, a lawyer, influencer, and progressive activist, has become the face of a new #MeToo movement. The 29-year-old Democratic activist—who uses her online platform to find and help victims of sexual misconduct—was involved in two of the biggest political takedowns this year, claiming both Graham Platner’s and Eric Swalwell’s scalps.
Now Hunt plans to build on that success with a new nonprofit, Reckoning Action, and has named new targets: three Republican lawmakers. Many have called Hunt’s work “revolutionary.” But not everyone’s on board. Some, like Democratic heavyweight James Carville, worry that the same miscarriages of justice that happened with 2017’s first #MeToo will appear again. And Gloria Allred, the famed attorney who’s represented multiple Harvey Weinstein victims, warns that this brave new world, where people can fire off accusations with a simple social media post, may come back to bite some women. Can Hunt deliver the reckoning she promises while avoiding the excesses of the first wave of #MeToo? That’s the question at the heart of Olivia Reingold’s profile of Hunt. Don’t miss it.
—The Editors
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The Lettuce That Launched a Thousand Headlines |
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A parasite called cyclospora is ravaging the country, causing hundreds of cases of diarrhea and sending many Americans to the hospital. The FDA attributed the outbreak to Taylor Farms lettuce, sparking produce boycotts across the nation. But the real controversy, argues Alex Berenson, is far more sinister than a batch of bad greens. The cyclospora panic is only the latest example of a legacy media narrative that, as he writes, “turns out to be full of watery (and sometimes explosive) reporting.” | |
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The Trump Administration’s Latest Attack on Free Speech |
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Remember when the Trump administration claimed to care about the First Amendment? It feels like a while ago now. Eli Lake discusses in his piece today a showdown between the government and The New York Times. Last week, the Justice Department subpoenaed not just the phone records of Times reporters but those of their spouses and one journalist’s mother. Don’t miss Eli’s take on the Trump administration’s latest attack on free speech. | |
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The Slow Death of Journalism, with Matt Taibbi |
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Eli goes deeper on all things censorship on a new special installment of Breaking History, featuring investigative journalist and friend of The Free Press Matt Taibbi. Eli and Matt dive into the censorship-industrial complex and tell the story of how the government controls your media diet without you realizing it. | |
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Douglas Murray: Why Mamdani Is Targeting Netanyahu |
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New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani promised during his campaign to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister ever set foot in the city. Earlier this week, he announced what has always been obvious: that he does not have the authority to do so. But the problems with Mamdani’s shocking statement go much deeper than that. It was, writes Douglas Murray, “a tightly packed set of casuistry and lies.” Read Douglas’s full takedown. | |
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