Author: Lance Garrison
A bitter battle is taking place between Big Tech and the free press over how to share in the income that news content generates for technology giants. The future of our news ecosystem, a linchpin of democracy, depends on the outcome.Last week, after months of hardball negotiations, Google and the Canadian government agreed on a deal that would require the company to pay Canadian news outlets about $73.5 million a year. Canadians are no longer facing the threat that Google would remove all news content from its search results.The settlement is far less than Canada wanted — it had sought…
I came to the work of the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse — who receives the Nobel Prize for Literature this week — by way of “Septology,” a novel cycle that began appearing in English just a few years ago.I’d been told by more than one person I trust that “Septology” was Fosse’s masterpiece, but I will admit to a personal reason for finally picking up a writer I’d been meaning to read for many years. In quick succession about a decade ago, Fosse married (for the third time), quit drinking, and converted to Catholicism. “Septology” was the first thing he…
The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve a $105 billion military aid package, mostly to Israel and Ukraine, and lawmakers appear to be at an impasse over the border security measures included in it. It is essential that Congress overcome this opposition and approve it promptly, as an investment in America’s security goals.Here’s what this aid package is: a commitment against authoritarianism in Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as a commitment to regional stability in the Middle East. The bill includes $61.4 billion in military and economic assistance for Ukraine and about $14.3 billion in arms assistance to…
The presidents of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania testified before a House committee on Tuesday about the state of antisemitism on their campuses. It did not go well for them.Representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, asked the presidents whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated the schools’ codes of conduct or constituted “bullying or harassment.” None of them could answer with a yes. M.I.T.’s Sally Kornbluth said it could be, “if targeted at individuals, not making public statements.” Penn’s Elizabeth Magill called it “a context-dependent decision.” Harvard’s Claudine Gay agreed with Magill…
Listen to and follow ‘Matter of Opinion’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicScandal, it seems, no longer stops politicians in their tracks.George Santos — who was expelled from Congress last Friday — will reportedly make six figures after just one week as a Cameo star. Donald Trump has been mired in countless trials and controversies — and yet he is still the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.This week on “Matter of Opinion,” the hosts reminisce over famous political scandals of yore. From tan suits to yacht affairs, what actually makes a scandal scandalous? And in the Trump era, are…
Produced by ‘The Ezra Klein Show’Before Oct. 7, Israel appeared to many to be sliding into a “one-state reality,” where it had functional control over Gaza and the West Bank, but the Palestinians who lived there were denied full rights. In 2021, a group of hundreds of former senior defense and diplomatic officials in Israel published a report warning that this was a catastrophe — for Israel’s security, its democratic values, its international standing, and its very soul. And they argued that there was another way, that even without a Palestinian “partner for peace,” there was a huge amount Israel…
There are two big questions right now about the U.S. economy. One is why it’s doing so well. The other is why so many Americans insist that it’s terrible.I have no illusions about persuading conservatives that the economy is in good shape; their minds are made up, and pointing out facts at odds with their views just makes them angry.But there also seem to be a significant number of progressives unwilling, for different reasons, to accept the good news. And this group, at least, might be willing to listen to arguments that President Biden has accomplished more than they realize,…
They weren’t bluffing.On Wednesday night, Senate Republicans made good on their threat to hold up military aid to key allies — Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan — unless President Biden agrees to big changes to policies on the southern border. Never mind that most of those Republicans supported aid to Ukraine a year ago, and have rubber-stamped aid to Israel for their entire careers. Never mind that support for policies to counter China have been a bipartisan bright spot on Capitol Hill. Never mind that the world is watching in horror — or in the case of our adversaries, delight —…
Gay responded that such language was “abhorrent.” Stefanik then badgered her to admit that students chanting about intifada were calling for genocide, and asked angrily whether that was against Harvard’s code of conduct. “Will admissions offers be rescinded or any disciplinary action be taken against students or applicants who say, ‘From the river to the sea’ or ‘intifada,’ advocating for the murder of Jews?” Gay repeated that such “hateful, reckless, offensive speech is personally abhorrent to me,” but said action would be taken only “when speech crosses into conduct.”So later in the hearing, when Stefanik again started questioning Gay, Kornbluth…
I just finished reading Tim Alberta’s masterly new book, “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.” It’s a powerful and emotionally resonant account of the transformation in evangelical politics that has brought us to the current moment: A godless man, Donald Trump, may now possess more devoted support from white evangelical Christians than any other president in the history of the United States. And most worrisome of all, that support is now disproportionately concentrated among the most churchgoing segment of the Republican electorate.One of the troubling aspects of the Trump era for me,…