Biden’s pornbrained FCC nominee
One of President Joe Biden’s most embattled nominees for the powerful Federal Communications Commission was a staunch supporter of Ugly George, New York City’s “Cult Porno King,” and his right to showcase naked women on cable channels he leased, Cockburn has learned. Gigi Sohn is a lawyer by trade — and her past legal activism suggests that she’ll take a lax approach towards the never-ending influx of sexually explicit content on TV. Back in 1995, the Associated Press reported that Sohn “lamented” a court decision that upheld a law designed to limit people like Ugly George’s ability to air sexually explicit content during daytime hours.
“This is the farthest-reaching ban on indecency ever permitted by the courts,” Sohn said at the time. And Sohn’s ties with the porn community go beyond just advocating for the Cult Porno King, who is best known for “persuading women to go back to his studio and bare their breasts for his local cable show,” the AP reported. For years, she’s been on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which recently honored an OnlyFans dominatrix who brags about urinating on people. Beyond Sohn’s advocacy for explicit content, her nomination is up in the air due to conflicts of interest surrounding her membership of a think tank funded by companies she is poised to oversee if confirmed.
Sohn is a longtime member of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, which advocates for broadband access — and is also funded by many of the largest telecoms giants that she will be tasked with keeping an eye on at the FCC. Democrats recently scheduled a hearing for Sohn next week. It is unclear if the Cult Porno King or the OnlyFans dominatrix will be in attendance.
TikTok spies at State of the Union?
Were TikTokkers invited to cover the State of the Union? A spy says at least one was spotted in the press gallery, where photography is expressly prohibited, ahead of Biden’s speech. The TikTokker asked if it was OK to record some five-second reels for his account, to which a staffer replied, “Only if you do a BeReal first.” He did not realize the staffer was joking.
Looks like China isn’t sending their best — better stick to balloons…
Shock: Britney is not OK…
Earlier this week Page Six confirmed that Britney Spears’s family and friends were in talks to stage an intervention Tuesday out of fear for her well-being. TMZ further reported that Britney’s manager and husband Sam Asghari, an interventionist and doctors wanted to convince the singer to seek treatment and sequester her in a Los Angeles home for two months. Who could have seen this coming?
Well, er, The Spectator. In May we ran a story headlined, “Is Britney Spears OK?”
“Britney Spears suffered years of trauma that most of us couldn’t imagine (and yes, this is real trauma) but to say that her current behavior is normal seems wrong,” wrote Kara Kennedy. “Her outbursts aren’t quirky or sweet, they’re unsettling.”
Then in August, Kennedy wrote, “The treatment that Britney has endured over the last fourteen years surely has to have lasting mental effects on the star’s health. And her latest antics on social media imply that she is still dealing with the fallout of being controlled by her family members for the last decade.”
Santos’s ‘simple-minded’ constituents
Members of DC’s press pack have been feverishly attempting to interview the country’s most controversial congressman, George Santos. The Spectator, of course, managed the feat last week, well ahead of most. But a flub during a Newsmax appearance yesterday may offer some clues about why the embattled representative isn’t keen to face questions.
Santos told Greg Kelly, “Having somebody like me come and represent other people who are just like me — simple-minded folks who come from absolutely nothing and have a voice in Congress.”
The Santos Show has had Cockburn reaching for the popcorn more than most other happenings in DC of late. But calling your constituents “simple-minded” seems like a surefire way to ensure we don’t see a second season…
One bad Applebaum: former Spectator editor turns government censor
Speaking of Newsmax, they’ve found themselves on Anne Applebaum’s shit list. Applebaum, a former Spectator deputy editor, has turned tattletale as part of her role on the advisory board of the British-run Global Disinformation Index, which, my colleague Ben Domenech writes, “relies on taxpayer funds to blacklist American publications with advertisers.”
On the GDI’s most wanted list: the American Spectator (no relation), Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason and the New York Post. The same organization lists its most trusted sources as the New York Times, the Washington Post and NPR. In other words: accurately reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop as the New York Post did = bad. Getting stories such as Russiagate wrong, as the Times did, and saying the laptop story isn’t worth investigating, as NPR did = good.
Staffers at the right-leaning titles are mad at the GDI. “It’s pathetic and unsurprising that the Global Disinformation Index is working to silence conservative news sources,” a friend at Newsmax told Cockburn. “Since its coinage ‘disinformation’ has been nothing but a buzzword liberals use to discredit dissent. The worst part is the blacklist is actually working: Newsmax is no longer on DIRECTV, despite viewership that dominated liberal outlets. Goddamn Brits.”
“When RealClearPolitics’s method — the pairing of partisan rivals — is seen as dangerous and in need of starving it of income, that’s the clearest of evidence that these self-appointed guardians of discourse are in fact enemies of an open society,” David DesRosiers, RCP’s publisher, told Cockburn. “They are not to the cure to what ails us but the disease.
“We are being censored through advertising starvation. These digital Mad Men Maoists are part of the thought-control network.”
Harry who?
King Charles is so sick of his loudmouth son that he’s resorted to pretending that he doesn’t know who he is.
While the monarch was greeting fans at the University of East London on Thursday, one attendee shouted, “Can you bring back Harry?” as King Charles shook hands. The King replied “Who?” before bursting into laughter and continuing his visit.
Cockburn isn’t surprised at the snub after the jaw-dropping revelations from the petulant prince in his memoir Spare.
