Dear Friends,
It’s a double-header here at Jamie Kirchick HQ, with pieces in two of America’s leading national papers.
First, in the Wall Street Journal I examine claims that Israel has killed a “record” number of “journalists” in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists claims that 192 journalists have died amidst the conflict between Israel and Hamas. But when I went through the biographies of the people on the list, I discovered that this claim rests upon a very expansive definition of the word “journalist.”
Second, in the New York Times I explore what the bipartisan mania over the Jeffrey Epstein case says about our conspiratorial age. Politicians and influencers on both sides of the aisle do great damage to our civic comity when they engage in reckless speculation and hyperbole.
As always, I appreciate your feedback and encourage you to share these articles with your networks.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Best,
Jamie
Re the Epstein case: you may be right. And you make a strong argument. However . . .
1. If Epstein didn’t traffic lovelies, why do we see a photo of Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre’s waist? Maybe it was just a friendly photo. Interestingly you overllook this.
2. Why did Trump have the justice department search through the files, and, when told his name showed up dozens of times, freak out? Maybe it was just because he didn’t want robbe associated with Epstein. But it does beg a question you failed to answer.
3. Why did he fly dozens of men to his private island on his Lolita Express?
I could go on, but if you’re going to write an op ed telling the world that we’re a bunch of conspiracy theorists, then you shouldn’t gloss over facts that are inconvenient.