Danny Bateman Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Who are your indispensable Twitter follows for political stuff? I use Twitter mainly to aggregate news, so a lot of mine wind up being reporters and politics people. I try to keep mine somewhat balanced - I've followed a handful of very smart GOP folks I find reasonable, as well as followed & very quickly booted some of the loonier people the left like to follow. People like Louise Mensch or Claude Taylor - mostly just propagandists hollering fevered conspiracy theories into an empty void. Who do you recommend others to follow & why? Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 (edited) The Intercept 538 Reuters Politics AP Politics NPR Politics Evan McMullen Jake Tapper Half an Onion (for humor during a troubling time) I follow: Vox NYT But, I am much more leary of what they write knowing it is skewed. I typically will read their headlines to see what they are writing about, then research the subject somewhere else. However, each can have good articles themselves. I just go in being skeptical. I've also started recently following: Conservative Independent Stand Up Republic Edited January 8, 2018 by BigRedBuster Link to comment
TGHusker Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Dude, who do you follow? I'm working on a list. Link to comment
knapplc Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 I follow: https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller https://twitter.com/jdawsey1 https://twitter.com/axios https://twitter.com/voxdotcom https://twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll https://twitter.com/maggieNYT https://twitter.com/jaketapper https://twitter.com/FiveThirtyEight https://twitter.com/NateSilver538 https://twitter.com/BrianKarem https://twitter.com/nprpolitics https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat https://twitter.com/Jill_Jorgensen https://twitter.com/DPRK_News https://twitter.com/mmurraypolitics https://twitter.com/PreetBharara https://twitter.com/HalfOnionInABag https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold https://twitter.com/Evan_McMullin https://twitter.com/lawfareblog https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy https://twitter.com/paulkrugman None of these follows are endorsements. I simply follow them to keep up on the news. As people enter my radar I may follow them and if they become annoying or too obviously agenda driven I may unfollow them. It changes based on what I see. In addition to these, there are several newspapers/TV stations around the country that I follow who give political input from time to time. Link to comment
NM11046 Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 (edited) Jake Tapper Preet Baharra Bill Kristol Maggie Haberman Benjamin Wittes Sarah Kandzior Washington Post Seth Abrahamson Ezra Klein Nicole Wallace Richard Painter Natasha Bertrand Norm Eisen Renato Marriotti Frank Bruni Adam Goldman Sally Yates Mike Barnicle Katie Worth Adam Schiff Kevin Kruse John Dingell Mitch Stewart (interesting Husker connections too!) David Farenholdt Jenna Johnson Jon Favreau *Not probably as fair balanced as others, but I feel like most of mine are fair and smart. Interesting exercise - didn't realize I had so many on my list. Going to check out who others have suggested now! And like Knapp mentioned, some come and go ... most of these have been around awhile (just now trying out Favreau and Bertrans and Kandzior) Edited January 8, 2018 by NM11046 Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Interesting question. Do you follow people because they write things that make you stand up and cheer saying...."aha......I'm right". Or.....do you follow people who you trust to give them information even though you might not like hearing it? 2 Link to comment
zoogs Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 (edited) This is by no means an authoritative or exhaustive list, not least because I'm very early in assembling it. It's also not meant to be "indispensable" -- I try to go for a larger sampling rather than a limited curation. One thing I think is important is to find diversity in background. If nothing else we've learned just how much of the national conversation has been shaped by a certain type of powerful media man: white, wealthy, center-left, and who regard women as playthings. We lose out if all the perspectives we get are men, or women, or white people, and so on -- or if anodyne impartiality is a requirement. I like people who are staunch advocates for their own perspectives, and it's interesting to see where some of the fault lines are. I tried to categorize them roughly, but it's not meant to box anybody in. Foreign Policy: Mieke Eoyang https://twitter.com/MiekeEoyang - national security at centrist thinktank Third Way Ilan Goldberg https://twitter.com/ilangoldenberg - Middle East security at CNAS, a national security thinktank Elise Hu https://twitter.com/elisewho - Asia correspondent for NPR News Sarah Kendzior https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior - writer, expert on authoritarian states, columnist for Globe and Mail Tommy Vietor https://twitter.com/TVietor08 - Host of Pod Save the World. Former NSC spokesperson under Obama. Tech/cybersecurity: Susan Fowler https://twitter.com/susanthesquark - software engineer, TIME person of the year. Brought down Uber's CEO before #MeToo Amy Nguyen https://twitter.com/amyngyn - software engineer and writer Matt Tait https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings - cybersecurity fellow at UT-Austin, formerly GCHQ (UK SIGINT) Kate Conger https://twitter.com/kateconger - policy and security for Gizmodo Politics/Culture: Josh Barro https://twitter.com/jbarro - editor at Business insider. Conservative perspective. Very prominent Twitter voice. Jamelle Bouie https://twitter.com/jbouie - Politics for Slate Nicole Chung https://twitter.com/nicole_soojung - writer, editor at CatapultStory and formerly at The Toast. Asian-American perspectives. Flavia Dzodan https://twitter.com/redlightvoices - Lots of commentary on gender, race (she's Latina), and their role in politics. Lee Fang https://twitter.com/lhfang - investigative journalism for The Intercept Jon Favreau https://twitter.com/jonfavs - Pod Save America host, former Obama speechwriter. Glen Greenwald https://twitter.com/ggreenwald - of the Intercept. Mehdi Hasan https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan - Intercept columnist Sarah Jaffe https://twitter.com/sarahljaffe - Nation Institute fellow, writes a lot about labor. Very good follow. Sarah Jones https://twitter.com/onesarahjones - Politics and culture for New Republic Ezra Klein https://twitter.com/ezraklein - founder, editor-at-large for Vox. Also has his own podcast. Sarah Kliff https://twitter.com/sarahkliff - policy for Vox; hosts THE IMPACT podcast on how policy affects people. Amanda Marcotte https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte - Feminism and politics for Slate Katherine Miller https://twitter.com/katherinemiller - Political editor at BuzzFeed (and formerly FreeBeacon....) Sean McElwee https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee - policy analyst for liberal thinktank Demos Viet Thanh Nguyen https://twitter.com/viet_t_nguyen - novelist, English professor at USC, Pulitzer Price winner Alex Press https://twitter.com/alexnpress - assistant editor at Jacobin Nate Silver https://twitter.com/NateSilver538 - 538 Yeganeh Torbati https://twitter.com/yjtorbati - Immigration coverage for Reuters. Rebecca Traister https://twitter.com/rtraister - author/editor, *very* good follow. Listen to her recent appearance on Ezra Klein's podcast. Christina Wilkie https://twitter.com/christinawilkie - covers Trump for CNBC. Matt Yglesias https://twitter.com/mattyglesias - politics for Vox. Essential follow IMO. Ta-Nehisi Coates ... sadly, he recently deleted his Twitter after an unfortunate torrent of abuse came his way courtesy of Cornel West. Hope he'll return; Coates is a wonderful and eloquent writer, specifically on African-American issues. Law Susan Hennessey https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey - executive editor at Lawfare Ken White https://twitter.com/Popehat - high profile law blog. Incidentally, the Popehat guys started the DPRK News parody account. Healthcare Andy Slavitt https://twitter.com/ASlavitt - fairly essential follow for this topic, IMO. Formerly helped run CMS for Obama. Tireless advocacy in the current fight. Economics Paul Krugman https://twitter.com/paulkrugman - NYT columnist. Nobel laureate in economics. Outlets -- I don't generally follow outlets, preferring to follow their writers instead (who act as a filter for clickbait, first of all, and whose conversations are more interesting than reposts of the same few articles). However, here's a small collection of smaller outlets I've read from time to time, and whose output would be easy to miss otherwise. nplusone https://twitter.com/nplusonemag The Baffler https://twitter.com/thebafflermag Harper's https://twitter.com/Harpers Foreign Policy https://twitter.com/ForeignPolicy ProPublica https://twitter.com/ProPublica Dissent Mag https://twitter.com/DissentMag Edited January 8, 2018 by zoogs Link to comment
NM11046 Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 35 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said: Interesting question. Do you follow people because they write things that make you stand up and cheer saying...."aha......I'm right". Or.....do you follow people who you trust to give them information even though you might not like hearing it? For me - Trustworthy. That someone has either become an expert based on their personal experience (i.e. Norm Eisen, Preet Bahara) or one that has high standards for research and expectations of their publication or audience (i.e. Jake Tapper, WaPo) Nicole Wallace straddles these two I think, and I like that she has a broad panel representing both sides during her shows and that they come on to discuss a topic, not to plug something or to just get through talking points. I never catch her show live but I like reading recaps and seeing take aways. Link to comment
NM11046 Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Also, important follow: MoonPie https://twitter.com/MoonPie 1 Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 (edited) Here's my list TGH. I'll try to break them into groups. - Most of what BRB already put. I think I follow all of those. Sometimes I unfollow actual media organizations themselves just due to sheer number of stories they tweet out and follow relevant reporters instead. I actually prefer WaPo to NYT myself, as far as big media orgs go. Liberal follows: - Kyle Griffin (MSNBC producer for Lawrence O'Donnell's show - very quick on many breaking stories, although they're almost exclusively of a liberal bent) - Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor (Crooked Media guys - all former Obama staffers that started their own podcast & grew a progressive media empire out of it. It's expanding to include lots of folks from many different perspectives. Usually good for a laugh on Twitter.) - Ezra Klein (Founder of Vox.com. Smart as a whip, particularly at healthcare policy, which can be dry, but very informative.) -David Axelrod (Chief Political Strategist for Obama's campaigns. Director of U of Chicago's Institute of Politics. Very smart political mind. Also has a great 1 on 1 interview podcast) Conservative follows (mostly Never Trumpers or conservatives I judge to be of actual principle): - Tim Miller (former Jeb! staffer, staunch Never-Trumper who actually donated to Doug Jones in AL. Also collaborating with the Crooked Media guys - writes pieces for their site & appears on pods to give a conservative perspective.) - John Weaver (former McCain/Kasich strategist who was previously a Dem. Actively punches back against the Trumpist takeover of the GOP, loudly.) - Tom Nichols (brilliant mind who teaches for both the U.S. Naval War College & Harvard. He's also got academic bonafides at various think tanks/institutes of various stripes and interestingly is a 5 time Jeopardy! champ. He's probably my favorite because he's ridiculously smart but also likes to troll dumb people who usually deserve it.) - Mike Murphy (GOP political consultant with a long history of advising various GOP candidates including McCain, Romney, Jeb! & Arnold Schwarzenneger.) Non-partisan/Media: - WaPo - Politico (great outlet for politics news) - Axios (good follow if you want to know what the Trump admin WANTS you to think - i.e., their spin. For some reason they're pretty close to Axios.) - Michael Smerconish (Lawyer with his own radio show & former GOP turned independent. He's very level-headed & I enjoy his take.) - CNN people: Jim Acosta, Jim Sciutto, Manu Raju, Jeff Zeleny, Brian Stelter, Ron Brownstein (These are just a few of my favs. Despite Trump's constant complaints, CNN typically has very solid, accurate reporting. When I put them on TV, which is rare anymore, I really like to hear insight from David Gergen on general matters & Jeffrey Toobin for legal analysis as well. Their Twitters appear a bit spottier, though. Tapper is probably my favorite follow of the bunch, but they're good for a variety of news.) -David Farhenthold (WaPo reporter who did a TON of legwork uncovering how Trump was lying about his millions in personal donations & how the Trump Foundation was basically used as a personal enrichment tool. He also broke the Access Hollywood tape news. He won a Pulitzer last year for his work.) -John Harwood (good CNBC reporter) -Nate Silver, Harry Enten, Nate Cohn (First two are 538 guys and Cohn is the NYT election guy. Great for up to the second stuff around elections, but you may need to unfollow & refollow as needed to avoid a lot of snark about polling clogging up your feed) - Preet Bharara, Ben Wittes (Bharara is the ex-US Attorney for the Southern District of NY (had jurisdiction over Trump Org) & Ben Wittes is a very smart legal mind who runs Lawfareblog.com. Both are great for coverage of legal matters, both on Trump specifically and as it relates to the broader government. Preet has a very interesting podcast.) - Andy Slavitt, Dan Diamond (both great for healthcare news. Slavitt used to run CMS for Obama, so he naturally approaches things from the left. Diamond is a reporter for Politico who does a very good job.) - Bradd Jaffy (Editor and writer for NBC Nightly News. Typically pretty quick on breaking news.) - Mark Murray (Senior editor for NBC News. Great source of info.) - Chuck Todd (Host of Meet the Press & debate moderator. Unfortunately also a Canes fan.) - Zeke Miller (AP White House reporter. Good for Trump info.) - Dave Wiegel (WaPo politics reporter, strictly for the snark. He's funny as all get out.) - Jonathan Martin (NYT national political correspondent.) - Soledad O'Brien (really like her coverage from a more independent angle. She often highlights stories others don't get to.) - Maggie Haberman (NYT resident Trump whisperer. I'll sometimes disagree with her takes when I think she gets a bit too defensive about warranted criticism of the NYT, but she's a wonderful source of info on this administration.) - Dan Rather (Living legend. 'Nuff said.) - Stephen Colbert (Go ahead - have a laugh. It keeps us sane. I'm glad he's not afraid to take shots at Trump. Sometimes humor is the best coping mechanism.) There's more I'm missing, but that's probably more than enough for now as well. It's certainly a good start. Edit: I forgot one that NM brought into the thread by didn't mention - Garry Kasparov. Former World Chess Champ and Soviet/Russian who escaped from under Putin's thumb & now gives fantastic insight into Russia's oppressive regime. He's also just an incredibly eloquent, bright individual). Also, a couple websites that have great content that I don't necessary follow on Twitter are the Atlantic for long-form stuff & Foreignpolicy.com for FoPo info. Edited January 8, 2018 by dudeguyy Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said: Interesting question. Do you follow people because they write things that make you stand up and cheer saying...."aha......I'm right". Or.....do you follow people who you trust to give them information even though you might not like hearing it? That's a good question. It's typically a mix of the two for me, because the media necessarily winds up poking holes in so much of the Trump/GOP propaganda. But the latter should always come first. We cannot allow our biases to be more important than finding objectively accurate information. That's what makes us susceptible to propaganda in the first place. Your question is actually why I started the thread. A podcast was talking about the blind spots we develop in collecting & analyzing info from various sources the other day & I wanted to see if I could get a more robust group of good conservative voices from other folks to avoid my own Twitter becoming an echo chamber. 1 Link to comment
zoogs Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 One thing I would plead with everyone -- whatever your politics -- is to follow more women. Unconscious choices can shape things in a significant but unintended way. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list of follows, but people who came to mind to recommend isn't a bad surrogate on which to take this metric. Of the posts so far, the ratio of men to women: 2-0 12-2 (maybe 13. It's not clear who Julius Goat is) 18-7 18-18 37-2 tot: 87-29. 75% men. 1 Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, zoogs said: One thing I would plead with everyone -- whatever your politics -- is to follow more women. Unconscious choices can shape things in a significant but unintended way. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list of follows, but people who came to mind to recommend isn't a bad surrogate on which to take this metric. Of the posts so far, the ratio of men to women: 2-0 12-2 (maybe 13. It's not clear who Julius Goat is) 18-7 18-18 37-2 tot: 87-29. 75% men. Good call zoogs. I actually through about this as I compiled my list. It's fairly bad in this regard. Although NM reminded me of a few women (Bertrand, Kendzior) that I think are great voices. Sarah Kliff would be another. She is very bright and covers healthcare for Vox. Edited January 9, 2018 by dudeguyy 1 Link to comment
TGHusker Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Everyone, my first ? is - how do you find the time to read all of these and 'follow' them. I don't think you all are retired and sipping a cool one on the beach - Unless you are a internet junkie, how do you absorb it all and not get stir crazy!! I'm trying to build my twitter list but I want to keep it disciplined to a few otherwise I'd be on it all day. If you were to organize it into categories like Zoogs and Dude have done, what would be your top 2 in each category? (Might include Husker sports as a non political one, maybe a religion category if you choose. ) Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 5 minutes ago, TGHusker said: Everyone, my first ? is - how do you find the time to read all of these and 'follow' them. I don't think you all are retired and sipping a cool one on the beach - Unless you are a internet junkie, how do you absorb it all and not get stir crazy!! I'm trying to build my twitter list but I want to keep it disciplined to a few otherwise I'd be on it all day. If you were to organize it into categories like Zoogs and Dude have done, what would be your top 2 in each category? (Might include Husker sports as a non political one, maybe a religion category if you choose. ) It wasn't long ago that I had to go through and weed out some that were just clogging up my feed. Many of them were Husker recruiting related and a total waste of bandwidth. I got it down to 100 feeds I was following. I would like to get it down farther. Link to comment
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