The Atlantic / Sophia Stewart
What do crossword puzzles really test? →“In a nation as heterogeneous as the U.S., the very idea of common knowledge is a false one. And because mostly white men have decided what ends up in the Times crossword, its content is often circumscribed by the biases of those doing the constructing.”
Cosmopolitan / Fortesa Latifi
What’s the price of a childhood turned into content? →A new series from Cosmopolitan looks at the family-vlogger reckoning and what happens when the kids of parenting influencers grow up: “I was told by my mom, ‘Do you want us to starve? Do you want us to not be able to make our payment next month on the mortgage?’”
The Moscow Times / The Moscow Times
The Verge / Cath Virginia
Pulitzer-winner Mona Chalabi on telling stories about Gaza through data →“It’s funny how a lot of people viewed me as a rigorous journalist on every other topic. And when it came to this, all of a sudden there was this disbelief in my method of research. There was this suspicion that all of a sudden it wasn’t rigorous. I think that really, really speaks to the very, very, very deeply entrenched biases that exist around this subject.”
Mashable / Elena Cavender
The New York Times / Katie Robertson and Benjamin Mullin
Garbage Day / Ryan Broderick
Misinformation is fun →“Most people’s experience with misinformation isn’t true crime-obsessed Instagram moms looking for zip ties in Target parking lots or insurrectionist QAnon shamans. It’s just entertainment now…You read and share this stuff because it’s salacious and exciting and funny. And no amount of media literacy or whatever is going to make it not funny to speculate about a literal princess getting a BBL and hiding it to protect her reputation.”