Does Comedy Have to be Based on Truth?

Hasan Minhaj is a serial liar. Does it matter?

Enshittification of Streaming

How something so promising became so frustrating.

The Future of Streaming TV

The current business model is collapsing. It’s about time.

The free high-resolution photo of technology, car, wheel, vehicle, metal, auto, steering wheel, automotive, sports car, supercar, gears, rim, audi, dare, pkw, circuit, passengers cars, gear shift, land vehicle, gear lever, gearshift, automobile make, automotive design, luxury vehicle, family car , taken with an ILCE-6000 02/08 2017 The picture taken with 50.0mm, f/5.6s, 1/200s, ISO 200 The image is released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required. The free high-resolution photo of technology, car, wheel, vehicle, metal, auto, steering wheel, automotive, sports car, supercar, gears, rim, audi, dare, pkw, circuit, passengers cars, gear shift, land vehicle, gear lever, gearshift, automobile make, automotive design, luxury vehicle, family car , taken with an ILCE-6000 02/08 2017 The picture taken with 50.0mm, f/5.6s, 1/200s, ISO 200 The image is released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required.

Fee-For-Service Cars?

Will consumers put up with monthly fees on top of hefty sticker prices?

Writers on Strike

They’re fighting for fair treatment. They’ll likely lose.

Are eBooks Books and eLibraries Libraries?

A pending lawsuit seeks to settle those questions.

One App to Control Them All?

I somehow missed Google’s launch of a service that solves the biggest annoyance of streaming.

Who Does Netflix Think They Are, Anyway?

Understandable efforts to protect their market share are alienating customers who think they’re doing nothing wrong.

Putin’s Desperate Gambit

A phony annexation doesn’t hide that he’s badly losing his illegal war.

Queen Elizabeth II, 1926-2022

The UK’s longest-reigning monarch has passed, aged 96.

Social Justice the New Religion?

The intersection of politics, morality, and meaning.

Uvalde police and the punisher skull desktop Uvalde police and the punisher skull desktop

[Updated] Picturing The Gap Between Fantasy And Reality

Police and the Punisher Skull

The USA at 246

The Nation is unusually divided and melancholy on its birthday.

Crypto Crash

The bubble may have burst.

Louis C.K. Wins Grammy While Canceled

Is the creepy comic’s comeback complete?

Nostalgic for Nostalgia

Is the past still the past?

The Economics of Streaming

The industry is changing rapidly.

Bob Saget, 1956-2022

The beloved comedian and actor is gone at 65.

Nobody Watches Cable News

A media critic argues we pay outsized attention to the goings-on at Fox, MSNBC, and CNN.

Dave Chappelle’s Weak Response to Critics

It’s not funny when you have to constantly explain the jokes.

Chappelle’s Last Netflix Special

“The Closer” delivers more of what people love and hate about the GOAT.

Dusty Hill, 1949-2021

ZZ Top’s longtime bass player is gone.

Amazon ‘Controls Everything You Watch’

The tech giant is even more powerful than you think.

The Broadband Gap

Huge swaths of the country are underserved.

Philip Mountbatten, 1921-2021

Queen Elizabeth’s husband has died two months shy of his 100th birthday.

On the Way Out: 143 Pardons

143 at the 11th hour.

Streaming Wars Taking No Casualties

Thus far, Disney+ and HBO Max are additive rather than cannibalizing competing services.

The Great Unbundling

The days of one-stop media shopping are long gone.

Guardians of the High Frontier

Space Force took a year to decide what to call their uniformed members.

Dave Chappelle’s SNL Monologue

A quadrennial tradition.

10-Term Congressman William Lacy Clay Ousted

Yet another incumbent has lost his primary contest.

Is Email That Bad?

A new company has reinvented the communication tool that people love to hate.

Trump Rally Flops Bigly

The President gave a delusional rant to a half-empty stadium thanks to some crazy kids.

Dave Chappelle’s 8:46

Arguably the best comedian of his generation is not kidding around.

Podcast Recommendation

“Oh, Hello: the P’dcast”

Joe Rogan, Bernie Sanders, and the Intellectual Dark Web

Politics makes strange bedfellows.

Obama Calls Out ‘Woke’ Culture

Former President Obama called out so-called ‘woke’ culture in a talk late last week.

Where Has the Decade Gone?

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

Great Britain’s Next Leader Will Be Chosen By 0.03% Of The British People

The next Prime Minster of the United Kingdom will be chosen by a very small segment of both the population and the Conservative Party. Does that make sense?

China To Surpass U.S. In Box Office Revenue In 2020

A new report suggests that the Chinese movie-going market will surpass the American market in 2020.

Microsoft Becomes Third U.S. Company To Reach $1,000,000,000,000 Market Value

Yesterday, Microsoft became the third American company to reach $1 trillion in market value.

1970s and 1980s Yearbooks Featured Blatant Racism—And Not Just in the South

Ku Klux Klan jokes, fake lynchings, and the like were routinely depicted even at places like Cornell.

Apple Launching Controversial News and Video Service

Is 50 percent too high a take? Or the best deal in town?

Streaming Killed the Video Star

AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV and TimeWarner is forcing price hikes that are driving customers away at a rapid clip.

Comedy is Not Funny

Is political satire even possible in the age of Trump?

Amazon Becomes Second Company To Hit $1,000,000,000,000 Market Value

Amazon has joined Apple to become the second American corporation to reach $1,000,000,000,000 in market valuation.

The Cable Bundle is Dying. We’ll Miss it When it’s Gone.

As much as we hate paying $200 a month for television, the future is likely going to be worse.

Conservatives Are On The Wrong Side Of The N.F.L. Anthem Debate

Conservatives claim to support freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but they’ve utterly failed that test when it comes to their reaction to players who peacefully and respectfully kneel during the National Anthem.

Cultural Vandalism?

Does learning that entertainers are bad people retroactively ruin their art?