Episode description

Before jumping into a truly brutal week for media news involving journalists who are younger and more attractive and successful than they are, Jesse and Katie are interrupted by their newly installed Alison Roman Controversy Alarm, forcing them to briefly update listeners on the latest twist in that eternal tale. Then they turn their attention to a PinkNews article positing a global conspiracy of lesbians who are sexual abusers and human traffickers and explain how that ties into the broader, white-hot culture wars involving gender-critical feminists and so-called TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists). In the final two segments, the hosts discuss Ben Smith's claims about Ronan Farrow's lackluster fact-checking and Jia Tolentino's blog post about her parents' guilty plea in a human-trafficking case, as well as the telling and arguably disingenuous responses from major media figures to both stories.

Show notes/links:

-Alison Roman’s NY Times Column ‘On Temporary Leave’ After Chrissy Teigen Feud (The Daily Beast)

-The ‘gender critical’ feminist movement is a cult that grooms, controls and abuses, according to a lesbian who managed to escape (PinkNews[!])

-Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True? (New York Times)

-Ronan Farrow admits he ‘misspoke’ about his Weinstein reporting. How many times? (Washington Post)

-Is Ben Smith’s Column About Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True? (Slate)

 -Jia Tolentino's blog post and tweet about the controversy