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Ed Martin Comes To The Rescue … of Alex Jones?!?
INSIDE: Donald Trump ... Kristi Noem ... Jimmy Kimmel
09.24.25 | 10:42 am
Join Us for TPM Fest, TPM’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
09.23.25 | 4:00 pm

On November 6th and 7th we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of TPM. It’s a two-day event in New York City — a TPM mini-festival: night one a discussion and oral history of TPM featuring TPM alums, current staff and special guests, followed by a live podcast and mega cocktail hour at the historic Metrograph Theater Manhattan. Night two a big party at The Bogart House in Brooklyn. Tickets are officially on sale now. We’re also offering sponsorship passes for those who’d like a few extra goodies and also help defray the costs of the event to keep ticket prices reasonable for other attendees. If you’re a member, there’s an email you received this morning with links to purchase your tickets. We can’t wait to see you.

Nexstar/Sinclair Wants to Keep the Ban on Kimmel? Awesome
09.23.25 | 12:40 pm

Bloomberg columnist Ron Brownstein posted this this morning on Twitter.

Disney’s initial surrender over [Jimmy] Kimmel marked another ominous advance in Trump’s campaign to suppress dissent. Kimmel’s restoration shows those willing to resist that campaign can tap into a deep well of public concern. But this fight is hardly over, for any of Trump’s targets.

He’s exactly right. This goes to a topic we’ve frequently discussed: not simply the deep well of public concern but the civic totems that makes American blanch at the idea that the chair of the Federal Communications Commission should act like a Minister of Propaganda or Speech Commissar.

As Ron says, this is far from over. This morning, Nexstar has announced that it won’t resume airing Jimmy Kimmel’s show on the ABC affiliates it owns. I believe Sinclair, a far-right company which also owns a large number of affiliates, says the same.

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And God Said, ‘Debate Me, Bro’ … And Other Notes From the Kirk Canonization Prime Badge
09.23.25 | 11:52 am

There are many threads surrounding the MAGA right’s ongoing martyr-making and canonization of Charlie Kirk. We know about the tendentious rewriting of history both from Kirk’s stalwarts and his fellow travelers; we know how his death is being used as the pretext for various crackdowns on free speech and domestic enemies. But the part of this saga that is most interesting to me is the part that is based on a fairly simple and lazy misunderstanding. It’s not a terribly large part of the story but it contains some interesting dimensions.

Ezra Klein, rather notoriously, eulogized Kirk as someone who was doing politics right. He wanted to debate everyone. He was a master of persuasion, Klein claimed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom made similar points. Each of them made slightly better points than their one-line quotes that have gotten the most circulation. But in those comments and in their penumbras an idea got hatched that Kirk was an example of people debating their disagreements, engaging rather than retreating to their echo-chamber bubbles.

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