Telos What Happened This Week
Our Sunday week in review and look ahead to what's coming
On Deck: We’re talking to Damon Linker tomorrow afternoon on Substack Live. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend his piece in the Times today: “These Thinkers Set the Stage for Trump the All-Powerful” (gift link).
Laptop of Secrets
We published “Devin Nunes, Steven Biss, and the Laptop of MAGA Secrets” in print and as a podcast. Thanks to everyone who read or listened to it. Your reactions have been heartening.
A few of my favorite comments from Telos subscribers:
• Terri Taylor: “Better than episode of Dateline.”
• Mary Cowden: “I couldn't put it down!”
• Michael Pratt: “I never write comments on articles nor do I offer opinions. This note is to encourage you to keep up the great work and not to worry about article length. Complicated stories take time and effort.”
Amen.
We also got a nice reaction from fellow Substackers and journos:
• Steve Schmidt: “The question around whether Substack can be a platform for deeply serious, long-form investigative journalism is an open one. There’s no doubt around the fact that this reporting by Ryan Lizza is of profound importance. This is a mind-blowing story of abuse and legal, judicial and political corruption.”
• Gil Durán, former Sacramento Bee writer who knows the characters in this story: “Steven Biss made a name for himself by suing journalists on behalf of MAGA figures. He even threatened to sue ME! The insane story of his downfall reveals much about how any broken grifter can play the MAGA game. Wild and revealing tale by Ryan Lizza.”
• Jacob Shamsian, Business Insider: “There is a SECOND LAPTOP FROM HELL and it belongs to a Trumpworld lawyer.” … “Just nuts.”
• Elise Labott, Cosmopolitics: “An extraordinary cautionary tale about how litigation is used as a political weapon against media critics, an approach now being expanded in the Trump administration.”
• Tom Lobianco, 24sight News: “[B]anger of an investigation from longtime reporter Ryan Lizza on how former longtime establishment Republican Devin Nunes and … Steven Biss built the political industrial lawsuit complex now employed by the president to attempt to stifle journalism.”
Finally, Simon Owens included our piece in his weekly newsletter of “the best longform journalism.”
If you’re not already a paying subscriber, please consider upgrading so we can do more of this work. We have two more significant long-form pieces in the pipeline.
Thank you!
Podcasts:
I talked about Telos News with James Carville and Al Hunt for their “Politics War Room” podcast. We had a good conversation about the difference between journalism conventions and journalism principles and why the former should be subordinate to the latter. We also debated whether a post-Trump Democrat in the White House would adopt some of Trump’s expansions of presidential power.
I also stopped by Charlie Sykes’s “To the Contrary” podcast and had a fiery discussion about the birth of Telos News.
Substack Lives this past week…
All of these videos will live on our YouTube page, so please subscribe to help us grow!
Puppy update
Our cocker is coming home next Monday. Bohdi is the current frontrunner for a name, but it’s not too late to weigh in! Latest pic from Phil in Alabama:
I’m still rooting for Murrow 😊
(Edward R. Murrow)
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