Media

Reporting From Exile
The situations in Belarus and Myanmar are very different, but what they have in common are attacks on human rights and democracy. In both countries, assaults against freedom of the press have driven most independent journalists into exile.

The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves
In the 1976 film “Network,” a struggling TV company exploits the paranoia of one of its anchors to create a hit show, thus manipulating the American public in the tumult of the 1970s and foreshadowing our own polarized era.

Podcast: Why I Stopped Writing About Syria
Syrian journalist Asser Khattab’s viral essay in New Lines last week explained why he stopped writing about Syria, sparking a much-needed conversation online about how foreign media outlets treat local reporters. In this latest podcast, he and New Lines’ Kareem Shaheen continue that vital conversation.

Netflix’s ‘Grace and Frankie’ Reveals a Trend: Women Rejecting Marriage in Golden Years
The Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” portrays two women who suddenly find themselves divorced in their 70s. Instead of remarrying, they enjoy the single life, something more and more boomer women do as they acknowledge the high costs of marriage.

Why I Stopped Writing About Syria
Of course, I was not going to get a staff job, I was not going to be called “correspondent,” and I was not going to be relocated anywhere. Quite the contrary, when I had to flee Syria with only a few hundred dollars in my pocket, I was immediately let go from a job I risked my life daily by doing in secret. A few years later, I lost another job because I had to move to another country once again for security reasons.

An Unlikely Smash Hit, Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Exposes the Dark Side of Free Enterprise
The smash Netflix series “Squid Game” shows the material hardship of those trampled by the free market system, but more than that, it shows what that system does for compassion: If your goal is to win, you must become heartless.