Being Weird About Zohran

Caitlin and Trent speak with Eiynah about how people simply cannot be normal about NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the way the New York Times keeps getting puppetted by far-right propagandists, and the manufactured nature of “newsworthiness.”

Resources:

News media propagate moral panics: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203828250/folk-devils-moral-panics-stanley-cohen

“Newsworthiness”: https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-1991-Racism-And-the-Press.pdf

Iteration: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810107885/limited-inc/

Reported speech can be recontextualized: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216699000806

The Bulwark Podcast June 17: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/zohran-mamdani-fypod-crossover

New York Times June 21: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/nyregion/mamdani-globalize-intifada.html

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/mamdani-globalize-intifada-democrats/

Don’t quote the ADL: https://truthout.org/articles/its-time-to-break-with-the-adl-as-a-source-for-news-and-research-on-extremism/

Dan Goldman’s bias should be mentioned: https://www.dangoldmanforny.com/israel

Jon Chait asks, why won’t he denounce the phrase? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/zohran-mamdani-globalize-intifada/683300/

Jon Chait hates attacks over a “decontextualized phrase or weaponized misunderstanding” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/cancel-culture-illiberalism-dead/681031/

NYT Columbia hacked https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/nyregion/columbia-university-hacker.html

NYT Columbia “exposé” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/nyregion/mamdani-columbia-black-application.html

NYT looking for justification: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/us/census-racial-categories.html

“Black New Yorkers”? https://nypost.com/2025/07/04/us-news/black-new-yorkers-rage-over-mamdanis-african-american-claim/

https://thehill.com/opinion/robbys-radar/5388110-black-new-yorkers-slam-zohran-mamdani-over-race-claims-on-his-college-application/

Why the NYT keeps getting played: https://www.findinggravity.net/p/christopher-rufo-and-elise-stefanik?utm_source=publication-search

https://www.theverge.com/culture/700082/nyt-mamdani-news-judgment

Chris Rufo lying about a drag queen: https://x.com/caitlinmoriah/status/1582415915508895746

Chris Rufo lying about eating cats in Ohio: https://web.archive.org/web/20240914120637/https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohio

Crémieux/Jordan Lasker https://www.cjr.org/news/times-mamdani-college-application-race-article-hack.php

Lasker is a grad student who believes in racist pseudoscience https://x.com/thecollegehill/status/1847372903077335501

Mamdani’s policies are not out of step with US opinion https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-zohran-mamdanis-policies-are-popular-with-americans-outside-new-york--even-if-mamdani-is-not-162406841.html

Mamdani eats with his hands: https://newrepublic.com/post/197538/maga-reaction-zohran-mamdani-eating-food-hands