Washington Free Beacon

@AndrewStilesUSA Read more at this week’s Stiles Section: freebeacon.substack.com/p/couldnt-have…

Practically everything Ana Marie Cox wrote in her profile for the New Republic, a once-respected journalistic institution. “Platner is not a candidate who checks if his boxers are showing when a reporter is watching,” she fawned as he hauled crates of oysters amidst the “gentle morning sun” and “lulling water.” She was particularly fond of the way the accused rapist’s sweater strained under that “stout chest and bulky arms.” John Hodgman, the Yale-educated comedian best known for his work on the Daily Show, texted Cox to let her know he also summers in Maine and was “thrilled” about Platner’s campaign.

In this week’s Stiles Section, @AndrewStilesUSA reminds us, once again, that journalists are not the heroes: There are few things journalists love more than congratulating themselves for doing their jobs—even, or perhaps especially, when they don’t deserve it. They patted themselves on the back for taking down Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein—after years of looking the other way. They were especially proud of themselves for noticing Joe Biden was too old to be president—and, more importantly, unlikely to win reelection—in June 2024.

READ MORE: freebeacon.com/democrats/denv…

The Socialist Democrat Melat Kiros, who is set to represent Denver in Congress next year, said U.S. leaders need to “tone that temperature down” and “prevent” antisemitic violence—by “reevaluating our relationship with Israel.”

READ MORE: freebeacon.com/media/crushing…

The Times reporter, Emma Goldberg, didn’t reply by deadline to my email asking “did you think about expanding the pool of people interviewed to the story to non-socialist, non-progressive sources?” Had she done so, she might have encountered some political analysts who attribute the turn to socialism to youth too young to have remembered the disaster that was the Soviet Union’s communist economy. Or to a U.S. education system that is failing at teaching reading and math, let alone history or economics.

New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn recently said the paper needs skeptical editors, including those on the political right, to ask “what are we missing here.” A Tuesday piece headlined “How Economic Anxiety Is Driving the Democratic Socialists’ Surge” illustrates his point, @IraStoll writes. The piece consisted of interviews with socialists who delivered a Marxist analysis of the situation, arguing that “economic frustration”—particularly “layoffs in white-collar industries, the threat of job displacement from artificial intelligence, rising costs of living”—is prompting them to join the Democratic Socialists of America. Stoll responds:

READ MORE: freebeacon.com/america/terrib…

“The notion that an arm of the government would accept outside money to prosecute or target a political opponent or an ideological foe seems vindictive and contrary to basic notions of fairness,” Paulose, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, told the Free Beacon. “I think it could raise constitutional issues of equal protection and due process under the federal constitution, and certainly under state constitutions, depending on which jurisdiction you’re litigating in.”

A coalition of left-wing prosecutors is promising to target federal immigration agents using a war chest funded by secret donors and liberal dark money networks. Legal experts say the “terribly corrupt” arrangement blurs the lines between legitimate law enforcement and politically motivated prosecutions.