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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

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Defector

NYC: Come To Our WNBA Comedy Show On May 16

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Live Event


<p>Jay Willis is a writer who covers law and democracy. His work has appeared in GQ, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, and more. He is the editor-in-chief at Balls &amp; Strikes, an outlet for progressive commentary on the legal system.</p>


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Jay Willis

Giant portraits of the news anchors at Fox News headquarters building in New York City. Very cursed image.

Giant portraits of the news anchors at Fox News

Journalismism

Tim Burke’s Indictment Is A Political Choice Disguised As A Legal Act

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Samer Kalaf

nyt-building

The New York Times Ignores Intense Scrutiny Of Its Oct. 7 Report

<p>Staff Writer</p>
<p>Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.09</p>


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Chris Thompson

Vice’s Avaricious Stewards Finally Succeeded At Bleeding It Dry

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<p>Mike Tanier has covered the NFL for 20 years for Football Outsiders, the New York Times, The Messenger, Bleacher Report, Sports on Earth, and other ancient empires. He&#8217;s a co-author of Aaron Schatz&#8217;s FTN Football Almanac and the author of the Y/A novel for grownups <i>Long Snapper&#8217;s Blues. </i>He lives off Exit 3 of the New Jersey Turnpike with his long-suffering wife, two sons and a 70-pound American Bully named Frank the Tank. <span style="font-weight: 400">His new Substack, <a href="https://miketanier.substack.com/">Too Deep Zone</a>, has officially launched.</span></p>
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Mike Tanier

STILL LIFE OF SKELETON WRITING IN LARGE BOOK WITH QUILL PEN (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)

STILL LIFE OF SKELETON…

Three Newsrooms Imploded Around Me In Under A Year

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Patrick Redford

Logo for The Messenger, with letters flickering out and then going blank. First the 'h', then the 'nge', then the 'T e e r.' Blue background, white text.

The Mess – GIF logo – Messenger story

The Messenger Is Circling The Drain


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


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Sabrina Imbler

The Popular Science Logo on a black background

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Popular Science Ends And Science Journalism Keeps Shrinking

Premature babies are moved from their incubators to another location at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

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Politics

Hamas Will Be Anywhere That Israel Wants It To Be

G/O Media Shutters Jezebel After Abandoning Sale Efforts

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Lauren Theisen

The Messenger Is Speedrunning The Media Startup Life Cycle

<p>Katharine Trendacosta writes about tech policy, the entertainment industry, pop culture, and where those things intersect. In her day job, she&#8217;s the Associate Director of Policy and Activism for the digital civil liberties nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (Her writing here reflects her views alone and not those of EFF.) In her spare time, she writes things like this.</p>


A photo of the author, Katharine Trendacosta

Katharine Trendacosta

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 19: Striking SAG-AFTRA members picket with striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers outside Netflix offices on July 19, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Members of SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood's largest union which represents actors and other media professionals, have joined striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers in the first joint walkout against the studios since 1960. The strike could shut down Hollywood productions completely with writers in the third month of their strike against the Hollywood studios. Netflix reported second quarter earnings after the closing bell today.

Members Of SAG-AFTRA And WGA Go On Strike At Netflix, Sunset Gower And Paramount Studios

Arts And Culture

The Hollywood Strike Forces A Reckoning For The Trades

A screenshot of Gizmodo Bot's author page, with one bad Star Wars blog

gizmodobot

G/O Media’s Bot-Written Blogs May Be Unreadable, But At Least They’re Incorrect


<p>Alex Pareene is a contributing editor at The New Republic and the co-host, with Laura Marsh, of the podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/018-amanda-litman-run-for-something-why-you-cant-see/id1341525125?i=1000444277937" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Politics of Everything</a>.</p>


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Alex Pareene

Reddit logo is seen on an android mobile device with an ascent growth chart in the background.

Capital

The Last Page Of The Internet

The Messenger's white-text on blue-field logo.

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The Messenger Hasn’t Yet Disrupted Anything But Its Own Newsroom

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Laura Wagner

Protesters face off with a line of police officers during a rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols outside the LAPD headquarters, in Los Angeles, California, on January 27, 2023. - The US city of Memphis released January 27, 2023 graphic video footage depicting the fatal police assault of a 29-year-old Black man, as cities nationwide braced for a night of protests against police brutality. Five Memphis officers, also all Black, were charged with second-degree murder in the beating of Tyre Nichols, who died in hospital on January 10 three days after being stopped on suspicion of reckless driving. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP)

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Policing

Journalist Ben Camacho On Facing Petty LAPD-Driven Lawsuit: “It’s The Biggest Gaslight Of My Life”

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David Roth

Former President Donald Trump arrives for his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.

New York Grand Jury Votes To Indict Former President Trump

It Only Seems Unprecedented

The New York Times 24-Hour Strike

A Roundtable On The Free Speech Implications Of The New York Times Trans Letter Debate

Stuffed rabbits copulating are on display at the Palais de la Decouverte (scientific museum) in Paris on October 23, 2012 as part of an exhibition.

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How To Have More Sex

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Soccer

Qatar Is Already Hassling Journalists At The World Cup

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CNN’s Newest Star Is Proudly “Nonpolitical”

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If The Washington Post Is Giving Sports Betting Advice, Anyone Will


<p>Visual Editor. Runs <a href="http://defectorstore.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">defectorstore.com</a>. Philadelphia-based, if you couldn’t tell.</p>


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Dan McQuade

A hand covered in fentanyl. With a caption: 'Figure 1. Hand and Wrist Visibly Soiled with Fentanyl. Note: Larger liquid volumes appear more visible, however nearly full surface area was exposed. Arrow shows 0.5cm abrasion.'

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Cops Are Still Fainting When They Touch Fentanyl

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Under NYT Ownership, The Athletic Lays Down “No Politics” Rule For Staff

Money Money Money

Defector’s Valuation Is $333 Million, According To Very Real Business Math

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Axios To Staff: Our Values Are Cynically Engineered And Incoherent

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<p>Charles P. Pierce is a writer at <em>Esquire</em> and the author of four books, most recently <em>Idiot America</em>, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.</p>
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Charles P. Pierce

Tiger Woods celebrates on the eighteenth green after winning the 1997 Masters tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, on April 13 1997. Woods finished with a record eighteen-under-par. / AFP PHOTO / Timothy A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

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Golf

Tiger Woods, But Not Me, 25 Years Later

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