Jon Allsop

United Kingdom

Writer at Columbia Journalism Review

Author: What is Journalism For? Currently writing for @NewYorker and @CJR. Other words @NYBooks, @VanityFair, @TheAtlantic, @Guardian. @ArgyleLife1886 for fun.

Articles

Can Public Media Survive Trump?

3 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Jon Allsop

For this week’s Fault Lines column, Jon Allsop is filling in for Jay Caspian Kang. In 1911, voters in Los Angeles founded a newspaper. It was called the Municipal News, and proclaimed itself “Owned by the People.” The backdrop, according to Victor Pickard, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was growing national dissatisfaction with “commercial excesses such as yellow journalism and propaganda—the ‘clickbait’ and ‘fake news’ ” of the day.
The Insidious Spread of ‘Foreign Agent’ Laws Continues

3 weeks ago | cjr.org | Jon Allsop

Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter. In March, Viktor Orbán, the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, gave a speech commemorating an uprising against the Hapsburg-ruled Austrian Empire in 1848—a famous year of revolutions across Europe—and took aim at what he sees as the imperialists of today, in dark, militaristic language.
Is Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal a Work of Journalism?

3 weeks ago | cjr.org | Jon Allsop

Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter. I discovered the Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder a few years ago (as with most pop-culture phenomena, I was pretty late to the party) when a friend made me watch Nathan for You, a show in which, playing a disconcertingly deadpan version of himself, he doles out advice to real small businesses—but the advice is terrible. I found it hysterical.
Elon Musk’s Vanishing Act

4 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Jon Allsop

For this week’s Fault Lines column, Jon Allsop is filling in for Jay Caspian Kang. In January, Ezra Klein, the New York Times columnist, spoke on his podcast with Chris Hayes, the MSNBC anchor, about attention, a topic on which Hayes had just written a book.
Polish Up the Gray

1 month ago | cjr.org | Jon Allsop

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Who’s to Blame for Missing Biden’s Decline?

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Jon Allsop

Alex Thompson, a journalist at Axios, received an award at last month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a fancy bash where members of the press rub shoulders with the people they cover, traditionally including the President. Donald Trump skipped the event, and the persistent threats that he’s made against the media hung over it.
Deadline Pressure

1 month ago | cjr.org | Jon Allsop

Sign up for The Media Today, CJRâs daily newsletter. Two weeks ago, I wrote in this newsletter about a horse called Journalism, which was the favorite going into the Kentucky Derby, ultimately losing out to a rival named Sovereigntyâa result that was inevitably cheered, in a metaphorical sense, by Trump administration officials and right-wing populists and taken as an ominous sign by many journalists.
What Elections in Romania and Poland Say About Populism and the Press

1 month ago | cjr.org | Jon Allsop

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The Real Audience for Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Spectacles

1 month ago | businessandamerica.com | Jon Allsop

Serwer’s essay came out in 2018, and made the case that President Trump and his supporters had found community in celebrating harshness toward people they hate, including migrants. Since Trump has returned to office, on an even more racist platform, cruelty—and the performance thereof—have, again, often seemed to be the point.
The Real Audience for Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Spectacles

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Jon Allsop

Last May, the United Kingdom’s Home Office posted footage that showed immigration officers going door to door and marching migrants into a waiting van. “BREAKING,” a caption read, “the first people set to be removed to Rwanda have been detained.” This was a reference to a deal struck two years earlier, under which Rwanda’s government had agreed to take in asylum seekers who entered the U.K. unlawfully—and who had not come from Rwanda.