Michael Socolow

Exclusive: Trump tells Reuters he did not sign off on ad campaign featuring homeland security secretary President Donald ​Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he did not sign off on a $220 million border security ‌advertising campaign featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who faced bipartisa...

She was fired because she threw her boss under the bus yesterday on the $220 million ad campaign.
Nothing else mattered.
Had she not done that, she'd still be DHS Secretary.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

How to Win By Losing: The Netflix Example The big winner in the Warner Brothers Discovery sale turns out to be the company that was left holding the bag... of money.

Still pretty amazing to me how Netflix just pulled off one of the greatest tactical moves in the history of U.S. corporate media.
They took $2.8 billion from a rival while severely hampering that rival's ability to compete with them.
Latest Lint Trap

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/how-to-win...

Poster for the Marcus Urann Lecture at the University of Maine. Titled: "More than Learners: Students as Makers of the University of Maine" it will be delivered by University of Maine President Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy on Thursday, March 5, 2026 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm in the Minsky Recital Hall on campus.

If you're in the Orono area, I'll be moderating the Q-and-A following the Marcus Urann Lecture by University of Maine President Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy tomorrow (Thursday).
Come join us!

Opinion | The glamour of the front line (Published 2006)

"There is a dirty little secret in journalism: War reporting is the fastest way to get ahead."

My 2006 Op-ed on why war (tragically) remains irresistible to news junkies and journalists: "The Glamour of the Front Line."

www.nytimes.com/2006/02/06/o...

Living in Maine, which is a poor, very white, state, I don't think the Nazi-adjacent stuff is going to damage Platner's campaign very much.

I think his more serious vulnerability is that he's from a wealthy family and is either pretending that's not true or evading engagement with it.

It was sad to see what happened to Ted Turner, and all of Turner Broadcasting, following the AOL-Time Warner merger.
Everyone would've been better off listening to Ted back then, as AOL-Time Warner floundered.
But that he lived long enough to see this?
Like a Greek tragedy.

The amazing thing about the Paramount deal: the more you read about it (especially the debt assumption), the more you realize it would've been better for everyone involved if Netfix bought Warner Brothers.
That includes Paramount.
The one exception is President Trump.

The Dead Internet? Theory and Reality I used to think the "Dead Internet Theory" was a far-fetched and humorous idea. A fun sort of conspiracy theory. But how soon before reality catches up?

"It’s not that the bots will become 'alive.' This isn’t about the debate over agency versus mimicry per se. It’s that humans soon won’t be able to detect other humans. The key issue concerns the confusion spawned by this new world, not the world itself"
linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/the-dead-i...

The Dead Internet? Theory and Reality I used to think the "Dead Internet Theory" was a far-fetched and humorous idea. A fun sort of conspiracy theory. But how soon before reality catches up?

The Dead Internet Theory was long considered a joke.
But nobody's laughing anymore.

The latest in the Lint Trap

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/the-dead-i...

As bizarre as it sounds - nobody could've guessed 94% improvement over last Games - it was a mistake for NBC to sell the entirety of its advertising inventory [over $900 million] before the Games began. Imagine if they held some back to sell at premium when audience was known.

NBC’s big Olympics bet looks smarter as Milan audience up 94% from Beijing Many wondered four years ago if NBC’s 2014 decision to secure U.S. media rights to the Olympics through 2032 for $7.75 billion was a bad business deal. With NBC having its most-watched Winter Games i...

The totals are in: tremendous TV ratings for Olympics:

"NBC averaged 24 million viewers across its prime afternoon coverage (2-5 p.m. EST) and Primetime in Milan (8-11 p.m. EST and PST)... That is a 94% improvement over the 2022 Beijing Games."

www.aol.com/nbc-big-olym...

When civil rights protesters are killed, some deaths – generally those of white people – resonate more From the civil rights era of the 1960s until today, white victims of government violence have received disproportionate attention.

Very proud of this article I've just published in The Conversation: theconversation.com/when-civil-r...

What makes the Olympic Games irresistable broadcast entertainment?

My book's concluding paragraph about how the Olympic experience is simultaneously deeply personal + global.

You're watching people's lives being transformed through incredible achievement... live, as it occurs.

The Olympics always pioneer broadcasting's future.
Examples:
1936 Berlin: TV + transoceanic live radio relay.
1968 Mexico City: Live color satellite relay (first live global TV event).
This year's innovation?
Incredible live drone close-ups.
Coming soon to NFL and MLB, and all sports events.

This was before the USA-Canada gold medal hockey game on NBC broadcast net.
The numbers for that will be gigantic.
If there was any ad inventory available [e.g, at local O-and-O stations], it sold for a huge premium.
Olympic Games remain one of top TV commercial properties in existence.

With 2026 Olympic Games over, I'm curious to see their value in new Peacock subs. Beijing 2022 earned 4 million new subs, Paris 2024 +3 million.

TV ratings were slightly down, but didn't matter: All ad inventory sold out before the games for first time ever - over $900 million.

Huge win for NBC.

A long time ago, I used to show Frederick Wiseman documentary clips in my media ethics course, and then ask students if the film/video was "objective."

Then we'd move to: Is a closed-circuit security camera monitoring a 7-11 24-hours per day "objective"?

It was a fun exercise.

RIP.

Is Anybody Keeping Track of All the History That's Being Erased? History requires primary sources and secondary syntheses. Both are being erased. That's a big problem for a shared future understanding of today's world

"The current assault on the construction of our shared present reality, yesterday’s history, and tomorrow’s public memory, is so multifaceted that it’s difficult to stay abreast of each attack."

The latest in The Lint Trap.

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/is-anybody...

In 1984, I saw Jesse Jackson speak in New Hampshire in the presidential primary campaign.
He was 45 minutes late, the crowd got restless, but he absolutely electrified the room.
When things really got going, he turned to an aide and said, "See, I told you these white people had soul!"
RIP

Jeffrey Epstein with Steve Bannon: Full Leaked Interview YouTube video by djvlad

A real Jeffrey Epstein secret: The guy was an imbecile. He wasn't just a cretin, he was really dumb, too. A true moron.

Pick any 5 minutes out of this Bannon interview, you'll see.

Funniest parts are when Bannon tries to get him to sound more intelligent.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIEY...

I'm quoted in @bostonglobe.com on Trump's media stratgies.

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/15/b...

Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations We are reinforcing our editorial standards following this incident.

Not really ironic - more like "telling" - that in same week the Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer celebrates AI & excoriates journalism educators for their reluctance to promote it, a national publication retracts an article because AI fabricated quotes:

arstechnica.com/staff/2026/0...

Look at the last sentence of his bio at the Plain Dealer website: "He received by journalism degree at Temple University."

www.cleveland.com/staff/cquinn/

Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations We are reinforcing our editorial standards following this incident.

This is going to reoccur regularly without human guardrails.

AI made up some quotes, injected them into an article, it wasn't discovered until after publication, and the embarrassed publication retracts.

Just wait until the fabricated quotes are defamatory.

arstechnica.com/staff/2026/0...

Do News Audiences Really Know What They Like? Jeff Bezos thinks the key to revitalizing the Washington Post is to follow the data and give the newspaper's audience more of what it already prefers. Does that always work?

"Do News Audiences Really Know What They Like?"

I examine the recent repositioning of the Washington Post and CBS News with a focus on whether algorithmic programming and chasing audiences is as promising as being innovative.

Latest in The Lint Trap

linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/does-the-a...

An easy money idea?

Load tons of Epstein materials into an AI interface, ask for a non-fiction book telling a good story woven together from the files.

Give the manuscript a juicy title when self-publishing the Kindle. Add a few phony reviews.

Watch the cash register start to ring.

I wish English had an equivalent of the German word "verschlimmbesserung."

Defined as: "an attempted improvement that actually makes things worse" or "a well-intentioned fix that backfires" (often humorous).

See: Washington Post, CBS News, & many other media orgs (e.g. TRONC).

US law school applicants increase 33%, boosting competition The 2026 law school admissions cycle just began and it’s already looking like yet another highly competitive year.

This is troubling: U.S. law school applications are skyrocketing [up 33% vs. last year, which was up 18% previous year].

Reason: entry-level job market has tanked for B.A. college graduates.

Crisis ahead: AI will soon tank entry-level legal job market.

www.reuters.com/legal/legali...

I'm sure nobody believes this, but I'd guess few people want a strong + vibrant @washingtonpost.com more than the journalists at @nytimes.com.

It's not so much about competition as being stranded in perilous times.

Times journalists mourned the Herald Tribune when it shuttered.

Cartoon from 1929 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle shows Taffy Abel, hockey player for the New York Rangers. Inset is a smaller cartoon of an elephant skating and text reads: "Impression of Taffy trampling down the ice in all of his elephantine grace."

Cartoon from Collier's Weekly in 1948 showing a crowd of hockey players being pushed into a goal with a story below it about Taffy Abel pushing 2 players and the puck into a goal.

One of the greatest American hockey players of the 20th century - first American to win an Olympic medal and the Stanley Cup - is largely forgotten.
He was forced to pass as white [he was Ojibwe] and was blacklisted from the NHL for fighting for dignity of labor.

theconversation.com/clarence-taf...