Ben Smith

Giant mics now convey more authority than fancy sets *a trend first noted to me years ago by @broderick

The conventional wisdom in the 2010s was that energy independence would reduce US military involvement in the Middle East. In practice, high domestic production lowered the economic risks of disruption, making actions like a strike on Iran viable.

If America were a company, it would be a ‘lifestyle business’

We as a press corps need to come clean and admit we did not properly cover the Afroman trial.

Put the war-of-wards, and it reads as if the Iranians are on board on a tacit understanding that, for now, there won't be more attacks on energy infraestructure. We shall see if this hold. I would imagine it would do so for *upstream* facilities. Certainly no for Hormuz.

Vol escorté par des avions de chasse : un vol de points Aéroplan en cause journaldequebec.com/2026/03/19/vol…

@semafor is thrilled to announce the launch of our new show - CEO Signal - hosted by Penny Pritzker and @Edgecliffe! Check out our first interview with @Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol below....

"We haven't looked deeper underneath to understand is there something deeper that's driving the economic crises, the political crises, the cultural crises that we're living in," former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy tells @IAmAmnaNawaz. "There's a crisis of fulfillment that we're experiencing that's manifesting in lots of different ways."

Pro-Israel movement deciding to go all-in to stop this guy is real 2010s thinking. They're going to need to carve out space for liberal pro-Israel/anti-war voices to have any hope of containing further left. At this rate, they'll wish they had more Dan Biss types soon.

“How do we just get back to the basics of Starbucks?” Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol on stepping into one of the most closely watched turnarounds in business. From the first episode of The CEO Signal, a new show from Semafor. Watch the full conversation: youtube.com/watch?v=N8Majs…

🟡 Introducing The CEO Signal — a new show from Semafor, hosted by Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and @Edgecliffe, Semafor’s CEO Editor. Building on the CEO Signal newsletter, the briefing read by leading chief executives worldwide, the show brings that perspective into candid conversations with global CEOs — focused on the moments of judgment that define leadership: how they interpret the forces shaping their industries, weigh difficult choices, and make decisions when the stakes are high. The first episode features Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, on leading one of the most closely watched turnarounds in business today. Watch now: youtube.com/watch?v=N8Majs…

A great launch for another new @semafor show: CEO Signal, in which Penny Pritzker & @Edgecliffe have probing conversations with leading business figures, starting with the CEO of Starbucks youtube.com/watch?v=N8Majs…

Scoop: Poll for @Analilia_Mejia in #NJ11 finds her cruising in the +9 Harris/+17 Biden seat: Mejia (D): 53% Hathaway (R): 36% Notable in the conversation about AIPAC actually preferring Mejia bc she could be beaten later. Election is April 16.

@semaforben @bdomenech @ShelbyTalcott Also, the investigation pre-dates his resignation just so that everyone that only reads the headlines are aware.

.@ArthurSchwartz replies here really kind of worth the price of admission

Always tricky to call the top, but this is quite a cover

.@ShelbyTalcott scoop: FBI investigates intelligence aide who resigned over war semafor.com/article/03/18/…

News: Joe Kent is under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information, three sources tell me. I’m told the investigation pre-dates his departure.

amazing how this series was framed a decade ago. "what an awkward, kinda embarrassing era!" now this is like the standard bushwick/ridgewood club moodboard...