Russiagate. Newly issued tariffs. A battle with the Federal Reserve. Misinformation warfare in the Middle East. This has been anything but a slow news week. We’ll get into all of it below.
But first, perhaps the most important news from The Free Press: We sold out our live conversation with Justice Amy Coney Barrett in just a few hours. It’s the first event in our yearlong celebration of America’s 250th birthday—and there will be many more to come. So make sure to become a paid subscriber to gain exclusive, presale access to all future Free Press live events. We’ve got a ton planned for the coming year, and you won’t want to miss out.
Okay—let’s get to it.
Why Are People in America Celebrating Murder?
Wesley LePatner was a mother, a wife, and a beloved executive at Blackstone. On Monday evening, as she hid behind a column in the lobby of her Midtown Manhattan office building, a gunman shot and killed her. Hours later, the internet celebrated her death. Our reporter Maya Sulkin spoke to the people who met her murder with jubilation.
“Her death, as a valuable instrument to such evil corporations, is nothing to mourn,” said one such person. “There have always been people who celebrate the deaths of innocents,” writes Maya. “We used to call those people evil.”
How did we get to a place where these people no longer feel shame in airing their views?
It’s a sobering piece about the state of political violence in America—and the inability to discern right from wrong.
The Smearing of Dr. Vinay Prasad
Scientifically rigorous. Independent. Transparent. These were the words used by FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary to praise Dr. Vinay Prasad after he was appointed to lead the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and they rang true to our readers. Prasad, a courageous critic of the public health establishment, was perfectly positioned to rebuild trust in an agency that—after major missteps around Covid-19—sorely needed it. So why was he just ousted from his role?
Prasad’s departure—the result of a strange smear campaign—is a significant blow to public health.
On the Topic of Trust. . .
Last week, The New York Times ran a front-page story on hunger in Gaza. They centered their reporting around a photograph of a sick child, cradled in his mother’s arms. The piece ricocheted across the internet, amplified by people with tens of millions of followers, from Barack Obama to Al Franken.
Then the story started to unravel.
On Tuesday evening, the Times quietly added an editors’ note amending the story, admitting that they misled readers about the child’s condition. The young boy, now a symbol of Israel’s alleged cruelty, had tragic, preexisting conditions that affected his “muscle development.” His healthy-looking brother was also cropped out of the photo.
The editors’ note and what it reveals—about the story, the paper, and how this war has been covered by the media—deserve a lot more attention than they have received.
Israel Wins One War While It Loses Another
When our correspondent Matti Friedman asked a former senior Israeli government official whether people are starving in Gaza, he answered honestly: “I don’t know.” Such is the state of affairs in Gaza—where searching for the truth amid reports of famine proved nearly impossible.
Matti—sorting through libel and misinformation to understand the truth of the situation in Gaza—phoned everyone he could, from sources on the ground in Gaza to Israeli officials. The consensus was that there were nearly no trustworthy sources regarding reality in Gaza.
So how do people of good conscience sort fact from fiction in a war where very little is what it seems?
Our Middle East analyst Haviv Rettig Gur addresses this question head on. “Israel,” he writes, “is fighting three wars in Gaza: a ground war, a humanitarian aid war, and an information war.” The three are inextricably linked, and Haviv argues that as Israel wins one—the ground war—it risks losing another.
Hamas’s fundamental plan for survival is Gaza’s humanitarian suffering. It’s a catalyst for international pressure. Amidst mounting evidence of widespread hunger in Gaza—much of which has been orchestrated by Hamas—the question remains: Can Israel win on this front as well?
It is essential reading.
In Other News. . .
Sydney Sweeney. Her denim ad took the internet—and our newsroom—by storm. It features Sweeney—blond hair flowing, blue eyes glowing—staring into the barrel of the camera. “My jeans are blue,” she says. Kara Kennedy breaks down how the vibe shift made its way to marketing—and demolished the fiction that anyone can be beautiful.
Sweeney may represent beauty in the earthly sense. But the 20,000 young Catholics on pilgrimage through France are seeking a more transcendent version. Rod Dreher followed along on the annual Christian ritual. There, he found thousands of Gen Zers on a quest for meaning, faith, and transcendent beauty in a world that feels devoid of all three. His piece is an absolute treat.
That’s it from me, folks. Be sure to read Suzy Weiss’s latest column tomorrow morning (she is, after all, the better Weiss), and keep an eye out for Things Worth Remembering and Ancient Wisdom on Sunday.
Have a great weekend.
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Author: Bari Weiss
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