First Ladies, the Media and the War

First Ladies, the Media and the War

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

If you’re fed up with First Ladies being pigeonholed into thetraditional Laura or careerist Hillary box (or, as Timothy Noah in Slate put it, the “victim” or “bitch” box), check out Katha Pollitt‘s sassy, smart and scathing look at media coverage of Judy Dean Steinberg.

After that–if you’re not fed up with all the attention paid to the candidates’ wives–check out the Washington Post‘s Outlook section this Sunday. I’m contributing to a forum (along with Wendy Wasserstein, Danielle Crittenden, Kati Marton and the First Gentleman of Michigan, Dan Mulhern) exploring America’s attitudes toward First Ladies. Are we ready for one who would shun the traditional aspects of the role? I think so.

And on Sunday morning, I’m going to mix it up with Howard Kurtz, David Frum and Newsweek‘s Evan Thomas on CNN’s Reliable Sources.

Topics: Kerry coverage; Dean’s relations with the media (by the way, he’s on for the full hour on Meet the Press this Sunday); and a question I debated last year, around this time, on Kurtz’s show: Could the media have done a better job reporting how the Bush Administration misled us into war? You bet.

Be part of 160 years of confronting power 


Every day,
The Nation exposes the administration’s unchecked and reckless abuses of power through clear-eyed, uncompromising independent journalism—the kind of journalism that holds the powerful to account and helps build alternatives to the world we live in now. 

We have just the right people to confront this moment. Speaking on Democracy Now!, Nation DC Bureau chief Chris Lehmann translated the complex terms of the budget bill into the plain truth, describing it as “the single largest upward redistribution of wealth effectuated by any piece of legislation in our history.” In the pages of the June print issue and on The Nation Podcast, Jacob Silverman dove deep into how crypto has captured American campaign finance, revealing that it was the top donor in the 2024 elections as an industry and won nearly every race it supported.

This is all in addition to The Nation’s exceptional coverage of matters of war and peace, the courts, reproductive justice, climate, immigration, healthcare, and much more.

Our 160-year history of sounding the alarm on presidential overreach and the persecution of dissent has prepared us for this moment. 2025 marks a new chapter in this history, and we need you to be part of it.

We’re aiming to raise $20,000 during our June Fundraising Campaign to fund our change-making reporting and analysis. Stand for bold, independent journalism and donate to support The Nation today.

Onward, 

Katrina vanden Heuvel 
Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x