Half the Answer #22: Being Weird About Zohran
Caitlin and Trent speak with Eiynah about how people simply cannot be normal about NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the way the New York Times keeps getting puppetted by far-right propagandists, and the manufactured nature of “newsworthiness.”
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Resources:
News media propagate moral panics: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203828250/folk-devils-moral-panics-stanley-cohen
“Newsworthiness”: https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-1991-Racism-And-the-Press.pdf
Iteration: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810107885/limited-inc/
Reported speech can be recontextualized: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216699000806
The Bulwark Podcast June 17: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/zohran-mamdani-fypod-crossover
New York Times June 21: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/nyregion/mamdani-globalize-intifada.html
https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/mamdani-globalize-intifada-democrats/
Don’t quote the ADL: https://truthout.org/articles/its-time-to-break-with-the-adl-as-a-source-for-news-and-research-on-extremism/
Dan Goldman’s bias should be mentioned: https://www.dangoldmanforny.com/israel
Jon Chait asks, why won’t he denounce the phrase? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/zohran-mamdani-globalize-intifada/683300/
Jon Chait hates attacks over a “decontextualized phrase or weaponized misunderstanding” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/cancel-culture-illiberalism-dead/681031/
NYT Columbia hacked https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/nyregion/columbia-university-hacker.html
NYT Columbia “exposé” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/nyregion/mamdani-columbia-black-application.html
NYT looking for justification: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/us/census-racial-categories.html
“Black New Yorkers”? https://nypost.com/2025/07/04/us-news/black-new-yorkers-rage-over-mamdanis-african-american-claim/
Why the NYT keeps getting played: https://www.findinggravity.net/p/christopher-rufo-and-elise-stefanik?utm_source=publication-search
https://www.theverge.com/culture/700082/nyt-mamdani-news-judgment
Chris Rufo lying about a drag queen: https://x.com/caitlinmoriah/status/1582415915508895746
Chris Rufo lying about eating cats in Ohio: https://web.archive.org/web/20240914120637/https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohio
Crémieux/Jordan Lasker https://www.cjr.org/news/times-mamdani-college-application-race-article-hack.php
Lasker is a grad student who believes in racist pseudoscience https://x.com/thecollegehill/status/1847372903077335501
Mamdani’s policies are not out of step with US opinion https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-zohran-mamdanis-policies-are-popular-with-americans-outside-new-york--even-if-mamdani-is-not-162406841.html
Mamdani eats with his hands: https://newrepublic.com/post/197538/maga-reaction-zohran-mamdani-eating-food-hands
