Megan Garber
The Phantom Reckoning
From Les Moonves to Louis C.K. to so many others implicated in #MeToo, there have been many performances of accountability theater. But those in power have repeatedly proven themselves unwilling to make amends.
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Carlos Barria / Reuters The Invisible Children of the Trump Administration
According to a new report, the White House separated many more families than it had previously acknowledged—and failed to keep track of those it separated.
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The White House / Arsh Raziuddin / The ... The President’s McFeast
The fast-food dinner Trump hosted was also an argument: about government, about political messaging, about himself.
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Lucas Jackson / Stelios Varias / Reuters The First Lie of the Trump Presidency
In his inaugural appearance as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer set the tone for the next two years.
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NBC The Titan Games Isn’t About Bodies—It’s About Minds
Dwayne Johnson’s new athletic competition understands that facts, in this time of anxiety, offer their own kind of escapism.
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Disney Enterprises, Inc. The Dark Magic of Mary Poppins Returns
The 21st century’s answer to the 20th-century classic updates its story for a time that is uneasy with simple solutions.
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Kevork Djansezian / Reuters The Leaked Louis C.K. Set Is Tragedy Masked as Comedy
A year ago, the comic promised to reflect on his behavior after admitting to sexual misconduct. Now he’s making jokes about the inconvenience of empathy.
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Warner Bros. The Major Flaw of You’ve Got Mail
Twenty years later, the film is a reminder of the giddy hopes—and, through its leading man, the inevitable disappointments—of the early internet.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters The Necessary Chaos of Harvey Weinstein’s Ongoing Court Case
The longing for tidiness in #MeToo cases is understandable. It is also misguided.
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Lifetime The Cheesy Endurance of the Made-for-TV Holiday Movie
The Hallmark Christmas flick has become a genre in itself—one that insists, against all odds, on the inevitability of the happy ending.
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Focus Features Hollywood Still Doesn’t Know What to Make of Childless Women
Mary Queen of Scots promises heady feminism, but it endorses a pernicious idea: Whatever else she might achieve, a woman who is not a mother is to be pitied.
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Phil McCarten / AP Images Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Careers That Weren’t
The women who have accused the famed science educator of sexual impropriety have made claims not just about traumatized minds, but also about traumatized careers.
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Gus Ruelas / Reuters CBS’s Les Moonves Problem Isn’t Solved
A new report on the former chief executive suggests how much more work needs to be done at the network that enabled him.
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David J. Phillip / AP The Soft Lighting of a President's Legacy
Embedded in the 41st president’s legacy are tensions about the nature of presidential celebrity.
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How to Look Away
People are finding new ways to ignore the stories clamoring for their attention.
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Danny Moloshok / Reuters The End of The Clinton Affair
The scandal that led to an impeachment helped shape the America of 2018. Twenty years later, however, it also serves as a reminder of the stubbornness of the status quo.
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Yuri Gripas / Reuters How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Plain Black Jacket Became a Controversy
The backlash against the incoming congresswoman’s “very nice” outfit is both tedious and predictable.
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Steve Liss / The LIFE Images Collection / ... Remembering Matthew Shepard in Today’s Climate of Hate
During a time that finds Americans grappling anew with the horrors of normalized bigotry, the icon’s personal belongings have found a new home at the Smithsonian.
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Alex Staroseltsev / Shutterstock The Real Metaphor of the ‘Blue Wave’
During the midterms, a small phrase suggested a bigger problem: America still isn’t sure how to talk to itself.
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Jim Watson / AFP / Getty / Katie ... Sean Hannity Is Trump's Shadow Press Secretary
The Fox star finally dispenses with the polite fiction that he is anything more than the president’s puppet.
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Rick Bowmer / Evan Vucci / Manuel Balce ... The Attention Games
What Americans choose to concentrate on, now more than ever, is an ethical matter.
