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A look back at the first year of The Present Age, Part 1
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A look back at the first year of The Present Age, Part 1

A "best of" look at the first year in business

Parker Molloy
May 31, 2022
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A look back at the first year of The Present Age, Part 1
www.readtpa.com

I launched The Present Age on June 7, 2021. Since then, I have published 165 newsletters. If you’ve read any of them, I’d like to thank you for doing that. If this is your first, welcome aboard! That being said…

If you haven’t yet subscribed, it would mean a lot to me if you did! The Present Age is a reader-supported publication.


This week, I’ll be sharing “best of” articles from the first year of The Present Age. Today is June through September 2021; Wednesday will be October 2021 through January 2022; Thursday will be February through May 2022.

June 14, 2021: I wrote about the way right-wing media frames criticism as “cancellation” in an attempt to make any and all criticism (from the left, at least) seem as though it’s part of some sort of sinister attempt to shut down conversation. Often, the exact opposite is true.

The Present Age
Fox News and the power of yelling about "cancel culture"
Did you hear the news about Tom Hanks? No, no, he’s not dead. Worse: he’s been… cancelled. That’s what Fox News’ “straight news” show says, and why would I ever doubt them…
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2 years ago · 15 likes · 3 comments · Parker Molloy

June 29, 2021: I wrote about a really interesting study about what type of content performs best on the internet. Turns out, it’s hate.

The Present Age
New study highlights the virality of hate
A new research article published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) doesn’t bode well for efforts to fight political extremism and polarization. The paper’s authors analyzed 2,730,215 Twitter and Facebook posts published by members of the news media and U.S. Congre…
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2 years ago · 13 likes · 4 comments · Parker Molloy

July 19, 2021: Someone tweeted that the Beijing Olympics had created special “anti-sex” beds made of cardboard, and a rumor took on a life of its own. I wrote about how false information spreads and eventually becomes the truth to some people.

The Present Age
Debunk beds: what false info about "anti-sex" cardboard beds at the Olympics shows us about the spread of misinformation.
Did you hear about the “anti-sex” beds made of cardboard that the Olympic athletes are going to have to sleep on? If you’re anything like me, you probably saw a handful of bewildered tweets, TikToks, and… whatever is happening on Facebook these days. Wild, right? What a mess! These Olympics, am I right or am I right, folks…
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2 years ago · 7 likes · 2 comments · Parker Molloy

July 26, 2021: Remember those old Holiday Inn Express ads? A guy would be dressed up like a surgeon, wrap up doing a procedure, and then say “I’m not a surgeon, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night!” That’s what a lot of COVID-19-related punditry has felt like.

The Present Age
A society of Holiday Inn Express guests
There’s a bit in Bo Burnham’s latest Netflix special Inside, where Burnham, perched on a stool in the middle of a stand-up routine, pleads with his audience (which is only himself), to please, for one moment on any one topic, stop talking…
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2 years ago · 26 likes · 8 comments · Parker Molloy

August 9, 2021: The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department put out a video claiming to show an officer overdosing on fentanyl after touching it. The story spread widely but wasn’t true. This piece was about the importance of the press to apply scrutiny to things the police say to them. In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, this seems once again relevant.

The Present Age
Media mistakes in covering a police video illustrate unaddressed problems
Last week, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department posted a video of an officer supposedly overdosing from contact with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 80-100 times stronger than morphine. Titled, “The Dangers of Fentanyl,” the video is a dramatic 4-minute public service announcement promoting the importance of having…
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a year ago · 12 likes · 3 comments · Parker Molloy

August 11, 2021: I interviewed Joe Galbo, the man behind the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s wild social media accounts. This one was a lot of fun. If you’re not following the USCPSC’s accounts, you should. I include a bunch of links in the article here.

The Present Age
Joe Galbo is the man making memes for the U.S. government (podcast + transcript)
Listen now (25 min) | Welcome to this week’s edition of the Present Age podcast. I’m your host Parker Molloy. Joining me on today’s show is the man behind what I’ve long referred to as “the only good government Twitter account.” His name is Joe Galbo, and he’s the social media specialist at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission…
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a year ago · 7 likes · 3 comments · Parker Molloy

August 30, 2021: Here, I wrote about one of the goofier traditions in hurricane reporting: the pummeling of the meteorologists. Here’s a piece that talks a little bit about the history of that sort of on-the-ground reporting, its negative effects, etc.

The Present Age
Nobody needs to see Al Roker get knocked over by a wave during a hurricane
As Hurricane Ida hammered New Orleans, reporters and meteorologists laced up their boots and pulled their raincoats out of the closet to carry out one of the media’s more baffling hurricane traditions: unnecessary on-location reporting. You know, this stuff…
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a year ago · 8 likes · 2 comments · Parker Molloy

September 6, 2021: In a bit of media criticism, I asked why The Washington Post would interview Alex Berenson for an article about COVID-19.

The Present Age
Why did the Washington Post interview "the pandemic's wrongest man" for an article about COVID-19?
Last month, Twitter handed down a permanent suspension to Alex Berenson (a.k.a. “The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man”) for repeatedly violating its COVID-19 misinformation rules. That didn’t stop The Washington Post from quoting him as an expert in a recent piece about the …
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a year ago · 14 likes · 6 comments · Parker Molloy

September 20, 2021: Did you know that some of the opinion columnists at The New York Times have been there for more than 20 years? That’s way too long.

The Present Age
Term limits for columnists now, please
Why is Ross Douthat? Or Maureen Dowd? Or Frank Bruni or Gail Collins or Bret Stephens or Thomas Friedman or… just… why… is The New York Times opinion section? Now, you might say, “Hey! Those aren’t actual questions, or even sentences, for that matter” — and I’d have to concede those points, fair enough. But it’s rare that a day goes by without seeing a t…
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a year ago · 19 likes · 6 comments · Parker Molloy

September 23, 2021: When Trump argued that they needed to “get rid of the ballots,” the press shrugged it off. What the press should have done was simple.

The Present Age
A year after Trump said he wanted to "get rid of the ballots," has the press learned anything?
The date was September 23, 2020, and President Donald Trump had just finished delivering a short set of remarks in the White House’s briefing room. He was there to discuss Johnson & Johnson’s announcement that it had begun stage three trials on its COVID-19 vaccine. It was an opportunity for him to brag a bit about the progress made in the U.S. compared …
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a year ago · 16 likes · Parker Molloy

I’m hoping to reach 10,000 subscribers by June 7. If you’re not already subscribed, please do so! If you are, please consider sharing links to TPA articles on your social media channels!

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A look back at the first year of The Present Age, Part 1
www.readtpa.com
2 Comments
Ed Cook
May 31, 2022Liked by Parker Molloy

That USCPSC article is solid gold.

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Prairie Librarian
Jun 1, 2022

I sometimes look at my many subscriptions and think I really need to cull them, save some money and cut out the ones that aren't as interesting. It speaks highly to the quality and uniqueness of this newsletter that it's one of the few I never even consider culling. So much good reportage, interesting perspectives, and fine writing. I hope you hit that 10,000-subscriber mark!

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