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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Colin Anderson / Alex Wong / Getty / ... Americans Can’t Stop Mythologizing Robert Mueller
Batman. Superman. Boyfriend. Savior. While the special counsel has conducted a notably quiet investigation, Americans have filled in the blanks.
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Eric Charbonneau / Invision for Warner Bros. / ... What the Casting Couch Looks Like in the Digital Age
One of Hollywood’s most pernicious tropes hasn’t died. It has merely expanded.
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Shutterstock The College-Admissions Scandal and the Warped Fantasy of the American Scam
Beyond the eye-popping details, the fascination with the alleged actions of wealthy parents reflects how thoroughly the logic of cheating has come to define the present moment.
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Eric Gay / AP The Beto Odyssey
O’Rourke’s teasing approach to his potential presidential run makes uncomfortable assumptions about what political charisma looks like.
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Marvel Studios What the Fight Scenes in Captain Marvel Show
The latest Marvel origin story brought in $456 million at the box office in its first weekend—on the strength, in part, of a very particular definition of “girl power.”
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Everett Collection Luke Perry’s Career-Long Act of Generosity
The actor, who died on Monday at 52, continued to embrace Dylan McKay, his most iconic and beloved character, long after Beverly Hills, 90210 ended.
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Leonhard Foeger / Reuters On Not Believing Leaving Neverland
The HBO documentary provides a detailed exploration of Michael Jackson’s alleged abuses; it also hints at what happens when faith and fandom get blurred.
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Michael Becker / Fox The Masked Singer Lets You In on the Scam
The Fox juggernaut, with its compelling and sometimes unsettling collisions of truth and artifice, is a show tailor-made for 2019.
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Jeffrey Markowitz / Sygma via Getty Images John Wayne Bobbitt Still Sends Love Letters to Lorena
A documentary reconsidering the story that transfixed Americans in the 1990s emphasizes the horror in an event that many remember for its humor.
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Logan Cyrus / AFP / Getty When a Yearbook Is a Current Event
The time capsules are also metaphors: for broken systems, and for communities’ tendency to protect, at all costs, those they consider their own.
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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters How the Women of the House Flipped the State of the Union Script
It was the most unexpected moment of an otherwise dully divisive evening: a group of lawmakers taking a speech that wasn’t about them and insisting that in fact it was.
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Merrick Morton / Columbia Pictures / Courtesy of ... One Way The Social Network Got Facebook Right
Over the 15 years since its founding, Facebook has marketed itself—and tried to justify itself—through a misleadingly humanistic premise.
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Getty Apocalypse Is Now a Chronic Condition
Art about the endings of things used to be the stuff of tragedy. But today’s creators are finding another way to make sense of ongoing crisis: through comedy.
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Eric Charbonneau / Invision / AP Industry Reactions to the Bryan Singer Allegations Are a Lesson in Willful Ignorance
Citing the director’s ability to generate money, the producer of Red Sonja defended the choice to keep him at the helm of the upcoming film.
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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.
