Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast 46. Sex Cults and Twitter Files
The New York Times stages a (one-day!) strike, and Nancy and Sarah debate unions, or what Sarah sees as a “20th-century infrastructure being dragged to 21st-century.” We also talk the Twitter Files, in which Elon Musk releases thousands of internal Twitter documents to two independent journalists, and legacy media lose their collective minds. The first Twitter Files dump (ew!) came a week ago Friday, a 40-plus thread by investigative reporter Matt Taibbi, who was swiftly labeled savior, has-been, and scumbag. “I take it all back, TWITTER IS THRILLING,” Sarah texted Nancy around tweet #15.
Sarah also got sucked in to the second season of The Vow, the HBO documentary on NXIVM, the human-potential company better known as a “sex cult.” The six-part doc (much better than season one) follows the trial of leader Keith Raniere, a master manipulator who teaches personal empowerment as he exerts a scary control. Talking with apostates and true believers, The Vow asks: When are we responsible for our own behavior? It’s a haunting tale about belief, coercion, and our need for belonging.
Our paid-subscriber-only content includes a favorite topic, lying sociopaths — in this case, Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch, whose fake cancer and sympathy scams were exposed in a Vanity Fair article discussed in episode 11. Now comes a follow-up where Finch, “disgraced and in exile, explains what made her do it.” But does she?
Plus! A special on-air appearance by bingo-card favorite and Fifth Column co-host Matt Welch, whose thoughts on Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em are …
All this and much more!
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Episode Notes:
“NY Times staffers walk out — but two key reporters cross picket line” (New York Post)
Nancy was live at the scene:
“Ousted NY Times Reporter Donald McNeil Jr. Speaks Out: ‘I’ve Been a Jackal Circled by Jackals’” by Lindsey Ellefson (The Wrap)
“NYTimes Peru N-Word, Part One: Introduction,” by Donald McNeil Jr. (Medium)
“Unionizing Salon Is Easier Said Than Done: 'We're Incredibly Frustrated,' Staffer Says,” by Dave Jamieson (HuffPo)
“Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi, and a Very Modern Media Maelstrom,” by Michael M. Grynbaum (New York Times)
Transcript from the Munk Debates: "Be it Resolved: Don't Trust Mainstream Media" (TK News)
Journalists having trouble authenticating anything Jim Baker says? That’s not new.
No, not that Jim Bakker!
“Controversial Take: It’s Bad To Put Words In The Mouths Of Murder Victims,” by Jesse Singal (Substack)
“Twenty years ago, in Moscow, Matt Taibbi was a misogynist asshole—and possibly worse,” by Aimee Levitt (Chicago Reader)
NXIVM Wikipedia entry is a solid crash course
“Inside Nxivm, the ‘Sex Cult’ That Preached Empowerment,” by Keith Raniere (New York Times)