Weekend News Roundup

In the wake of the Iowa Caucuses, and on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, here's what you need to know

We were busy over the weekend at Public Seminar: check out the first of a two-part series by Andrea Singer about #MeToo; Heather Cox Richardson reminds us that the social programs advocated by Democratic candidates are not socialism, even though conservatives have long made this claim; and Jim Purcell explains why a reorganization of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, intended to benefit children and their families, is instead creating chaos.

In other political news:

• A leaked Fox News memo reveals that guests on the network’s infotainment shows are regular purveyors of disinformation. There’s a surprise! — or two surprises, if you count the fact that the internal study was commissioned at all. Among those named in the internal document is former New York City mayor and inner circle Trump advisor Rudolph Giuliani. (Luke O’Neil, The Guardian, February 7, 2020)

• Will Menaker, a co-host of the podcast Chapo Trap House, issued a panicked Twitter rant on Saturday, urging Warren supporters to abandon what he characterized as a failed campaign and join Sanders to block Pete Buttigieg in New Hampshire. Part of what is wrong with the conspiracist wing of the Sanders campaign is that they see all political behaviour as resistance to socialism; the other thing that is wrong with them is that they just don’t understand politics. For them, the Warren candidacy only exists as part of an establishment conspiracy to destroy Sanders: the idea that people might vote for her because they think she would make a good President doesn’t compute.

• Also on Saturday, Joe Biden dropped this ad on Mayor Pete’s head. It’s a classic attack ad. While I am no Buttigieg fan, it’s pretty unfair, and the act of a desperate campaign. You have to wonder whether trivializing Buttigieg’s record as mayor by reviewing how he decorated South Bend (homophobia, anyone?) and helped people retrieve lost pets, will backfire.

• Rachel Happe, co-founder of The Community Roundtable, writes about why Elizabeth Warren’s positive campaign is a longterm strategy for winning the presidency and uniting the country. (Medium, February 6, 2020)

• Mairav Zonszein explains how America’s only national Jewish newspaper, The Forward, “lost the left.” (Columbia Journalism Review, February 5, 2020)