The 24 Seven: Checkout Line
On inanity overload
Coming up tomorrow on the next episode of The Ground Game Podcast, barnstormer
of The Lincoln Project, who I guarantee will have some thoughts on things. You can catch last week’s episode with , founder of Political Wire, here.While much of my content as the co-founder of 24sight News and author of “The 24 Seven” is deeply serious and insightful, I’m not above putting out some deeply biting commentary — if it’s on the mark. That’s why
and I developed “The Booboisie”, 24sight’s newest column, which launched yesterday. Ian’s exactly the type of person who would point out that at a time when elected officials are advertising their astonishment at flying saucers in the sky, they should know better because they have the power to point out they’re actually planes.24sight is one of the few places where the content outlives the headlines.
Ian join’s the excellent
in our growing roster of thoughtful (even scorchingly so) columnists bringing some clarity and levity to the digital upside down world, a constant reminder that the real world really ain’t upside down. (In case you missed Michael’s latest “The Level”, he wrote a heartfelt thanks to his mentor former Rep. M. Robert Carr, with some guidance for all of us.)You can find all 24sight columns at the top of the homepage under the “Newsletters” tab. You can also adjust your settings clicking the “account settings” link on the Newsletters page.
No 24sight News livestream at 4p today, the livestream returns at 4p ET tomorrow.
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1. Up on the rooftop
It’s hard to know when we’ll reach Peak Inanity, but mistaking airplanes for military scale drones feels like it’s getting there. The number of news cycles you’ll never get back is calculable, but there is indeed some concern over the spat of unidentified drones which have been popping in the New Jersey night skies.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy noted the sitings around military installations raise concerns, the Associated Press reports. And Flying Magazine reports on the number of reported and registered hobbyist drones and airspace restrictions in place.
The confusion is also a reminder of how much old boundaries have been erased. As part of its 2024 election interference attack in the U.S., Russian operatives called in bomb threats to U.S. polling places — stalling voting on election day — much as it has around the world. (There’s no indication the actual drones are foreign operated, but there’s been plenty of speculation in the mob of online rumors.)
When it comes to actual UFOs, ack, sorry, the preferred nomenclature is UAPs - head to
by Matt Laslo. He knows what’s up.2. Presidential attack
The incoming president of the United States is carrying through on his campaign threats, attacking journalists and pollsters. Not long after he said he would sue the Des Moines Register and longtime pollster Ann Selzer for publishing a poll which indicated much stronger support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the state than bore out on Election Day.
The lawsuit marks an escalation of Trump’s long history of attacking the press (even as he courts media of all stripes privately), dating back to the then-sitting president of the United States repeatedly berating reporters.
(Interestingly, asked at his press conference at his South Florida country club Monday if he would go after news influencers, too, he offered a quick “yeah”. Though his rage is clearly focused on the independent press and less so the newly dominant influencers and podcasters.)
This comes after global giant Disney, which is headquartered in Florida, settled a defamation suit Trump filed against its subsidiary ABC News for $15 million after longtime anchor and former Clinton White House press secretary George Stephanopoulos said Trump was found liable of “rape” in the case of former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. (In the civil trial, the judge presiding found that Trump had met the commonly accepted definition of “rape” by digitally penetrating Carroll, but that New York law set genital penetration as the standard.) Trump posted a $91 million bond earlier this year to pay the civil judgment and a subsequent defamation judgment against him.
3. Administration limits
SpyTalk News, which does some incredible original reporting, noted recently that allegations the CIA murdered John F. Kennedy is an old ruse pushed for years by Russians. Shortly after that report, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee expressed they could not support Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s niece for a top position at the CIA.
And following reports that Kennedy Jr’s lawyer had long pushed to end the polio vaccine, Trump told reporters he didn’t think that some of the wilder campaign promises from his associates would come to fruition.
As I noted yesterday on CBS News 24/7 after the latest Trump press conference, some of the flashier names in Trump’s nominated Cabinet still have to answer to the incoming chief executive, Trump himself. (Also, note to self, I need to brush up the home office a bit — that’s a holiday project.)
4. Populist outrage
The latest school shooting revealed a new, sad twist, in what is a routine national tragedy as it was a young girl who shot and killed two others and herself at a Christian school in Wisconsin Monday. (School shootings have been overwhelmingly by males.)
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that out of 544 schools shootings in the last 11 years, less than 5 percent of the shooters were female. (Google trends, as of Tuesday around noon, showed searches for the Wisconsin shooter’s name, Natalie Rupnow, topping its charts.)
Meanwhile, online interest continues to be strong in the case of Luigi Mangione, who is charged with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the heart of New York December 4.
Mangione remains in prison in Pennsylvania awaiting extradition to New York, which will be determined in court Thursday.
In case anyone had any questions about the staying power of this story in capturing the populist rage of the moment, Variety reports that Alex Gibney is already at work on a documentary about the Brian Thompson shooting.
5. Dead Malls
has a heck of a look at the decline of legacy social media as the result of a monetization strategy built on capturing attention with gimmicksI sat up reading it the other night, the long and short is if you draw in audiences with hype, try to lock them in with addictive algorithms and don’t provide a sustainable reason to gather around your water cooler (e.g. water) they’ll split town.
As a veteran politics reporter who, like many other traditional press, found myself surprised by the results of an election dictated by news influencers and podcasters, I’ve been reading a lot less traditional politics coverage and a lot more tech coverage.
I highly recommend “Broken Code” from Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, who has reported extensively on Facebook’s development of a platform which grew from promoting community to promoting rage and anger.
And, of course, The Bible.
6. Writing Music
“Girl, you thought he was a man, but he only was a puffin’”
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Cheers,
Tom LoBianco
Editor and co-founder, 24sight News