It’s Friday, August 7. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: River Page on RFK Jr.’s tragic salmon cakes. Jed Rubenfeld explains why pleading the Fifth won’t keep Fauci safe. Democratic lawmaker Josh Gottheimer on what is happening to his party. And much more.
But first: the problem with publishing.
If you think it’s overstating it to say that American publishing is governed by an insidious double standard, consider recent events at one of America’s biggest publishers. Last week, Simon & Schuster doubled down on its relationship with Palestinian American novelist Susan Abulhawa, despite her praise for a terrorist, her revival of Nazi-era antisemitic tropes, and her dark characterization of Jews as “ghouls,” “cockroaches,” and “demons.” At the same time, Jewish writers such as Alyssa Rosenheck and Meg Keene say they’ve had their events canceled, faced pressure to downplay Jewish identity, and had to deal with a publishing industry increasingly unwilling to stand behind them.
Today, the author Gerald Posner, whose books have been published by Simon & Schuster, makes an argument for consistency. If publishers insist they’re defending free expression rather than endorsing every author they publish, that principle has to apply evenly. It hasn’t at S&S, which is why Gerald says he may be taking his next book elsewhere.
And for more on the dangerous worldview that has come to dominate publishing, read Matti Friedman’s essay “Introduction to Gazaology.”
—The Editors
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Josh Gottheimer: The Democratic Party Is Being Hijacked |
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This week, Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary and has roughly even odds of joining Congress’s upper chamber next year. New Jersey congressman Josh Gottheimer, a fellow Democrat, argues that El-Sayed didn’t triumph by focusing on affordability. Instead, he rose to prominence by painting Israel as a great villain. As Gottheimer sees it, that’s an ominous sign, and suggests a fixation that runs far deeper than one candidate: He believes hatred for Israel has become endemic inside his own party. If his colleagues don’t act now, this new movement could threaten the entire country. | |
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I Made RFK Jr.’s Salmon Cakes. They Were Bad. |
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Last week, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched “The Real Food Show,” a Make America Healthy Again-themed cooking program. According to the government’s website, it has a bold mission: “To make healthy eating practical, approachable, and affordable.” We sent River Page to try the inaugural recipe for himself—and the reality, he reports, turned out to be far pricier (and less tasty) than it seemed. “HHS’s math—and I suppose, Kennedy’s—fundamentally misunderstands what it is like to go grocery shopping as a broke person in this country,” he writes. Plus, “The kitchen in the video also looked suspiciously spotless in the aftermath. Mine looked like the Lower Ninth Ward after Katrina.” | |
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Fauci’s Legal Defense Has a Fatal Flaw |
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On Thursday morning, a Senate committee led by GOP senator Rand Paul voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at last week’s hearing. The move was politically fraught, but many legal experts claim that invoking the Fifth Amendment was a perfectly acceptable way for Fauci to avoid getting into trouble with the law. Our legal columnist, Jed Rubenfeld, says those experts couldn’t be more wrong; read his piece to find out why. | |
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Ted Cruz’s Plan to Bring Down Iran’s Regime—and Tucker Carlson |
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President Donald Trump spent much of the week seeking yet another end to the war he launched in Iran, yet a few voices in his party are still committed to seeing it through. In the latest episode of “School of War,” Senator Ted Cruz offers a plan to redouble the Iran war effort and topple the regime. Will his arguments find the president’s ear? | |
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