Megan Garber

Washington, D.C.

Staff Writer at The Atlantic

Atlantic writer. 2025 New America/Emerson Collective fellow.

Articles

Fox and Frenemy

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

This week, the White House adviser Stephen Miller used an appearance on the Fox News Channel to criticize Fox News. Asked by the anchor John Roberts about Donald Trump’s plummeting poll numbers, Miller offered a testy reply: “I don’t want to make things awkward for you, John, but it is our opinion that Fox News needs to fire its pollster.”The comment was classic political spin—when you don’t like the score, go after the refs.
The Short-Circuiting of the American Mind

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

In a 1995 episode of Seinfeld, an extremely Seinfeldian series of events leads Jerry to a problem: He has to take a lie-detector test. Specifically, he has to beat a lie-detector test. He seeks advice from his friend George Costanza, whose personal flaws render him uniquely suited to the task of polygraph cheating. George initially rejects the idea that conscience-free lying can be taught (“It’s like saying to Pavarotti, ‘Teach me to sing like you!’”). But he relents.
What ‘Silicon Valley’ Knew About Tech-Bro Paternalism

2 months ago | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

The show anticipated what can happen when masculine entitlement and artificial intelligence meet. Last fall, the consumer-electronics company LG announced new branding for the artificial intelligence powering many of its home appliances. Out: the “smart home.” In: “Affectionate Intelligence.” This “empathetic and caring” AI, as LG describes it, is here to serve. It might switch off your appliances and dim your lights at bedtime.
Escaping Orwell’s Memory Hole: Why Digital Truth Should Outlast Big Brother | JD Supra

2 months ago | jdsupra.com | Ralph Losey |Megan Garber

April 1, 2025 To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: [EDRM Editor’s Note: EDRM is proud to publish Ralph Losey’s advocacy and analysis. The opinions and positions are Ralph Losey’s copyrighted work. All images in this article were created by Ralph Losey using his Visual Muse.
SNL Has Entered the Chat

2 months ago | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

In last night’s Saturday Night Live cold open, three teenage girls chatted over Signal. They gossiped (“Did you guys see what Jessica wore at school today? Oh my God, she is such a pick-me girl”). They teased one another (“Hey, it takes one to know one, Bannessa!”). They did what teenage girls do. And then:“FYI: Green light on Yemen raid.”Yep, SNL entered the Signalgate chat.
I Can’t Stop Talking About The Traitors

Mar 13, 2025 | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

The show turns reality stars against one another for TV that is part camp, part satire, and pure genius. Some TV shows catch on because they are great art. Others catch on because they offer soothing distractions from a hectic world.
This Is What Happens When Reality TV Comes for Democracy

Mar 6, 2025 | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

Few White House events have earned the kind of instant infamy that greeted Friday’s disastrous meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. And few lines have been as revealing as the one Trump uttered as a benediction, of sorts, to the spectacle: “This is going to be great television.”The boast was, as the line goes, shocking but not surprising.
Trump Is Breaking the Fourth Wall

Mar 6, 2025 | flipboard.com | Megan Garber

8 hours agoUS 'destroying' world order, Ukraine's ambassador to UK saysThe US is "destroying" the established world order, Ukraine's ambassador to the UK has claimed. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said the White House had "questioned the unity of the Western world" and was "taking more and more steps towards" Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The …13 hours agoTrump puts new limits on Elon MuskThe president convened his secretaries, with Musk, to clarify power.
Deletion Is Propaganda

Feb 27, 2025 | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

The totalitarian regime of 1984 brings innovation to the erasure of history. While other dystopias have their bonfires—cinematic conflagrations that turn censorship into spectacle—the Party, in George Orwell’s vision, relies on memory holes. The devices are incinerators, in the end; they burn books (and news and letters and art and all other evidence of the non-Party past) as effectively as bonfires do. But their flames are neatly hidden from view.
You Are Cordially Invited to Discuss Your Allegation of Sexual Assault

Dec 18, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Megan Garber

How could any woman resist Senator Lindsey Graham’s generous summons to speak publicly about her claim?