"On this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic 's David Frum opens with an urgent warning about TikTok's looming deal with Trump-aligned insiders-a move David calls the "biggest giveaway since the days of the railway grants." He argues that the American media landscape has been quietly transformed, and political power has shifted from legacy outlets to algorithmic platforms loyal to the president."
"Then David speaks with the filmmaker Ken Burns about his new documentary series on the American Revolution. Together, they explore the Revolution's competing legacies-liberty and exclusion, heroism and hypocrisy-and how its unresolved contradictions still shape the nation's identity. Burns reflects on the moral complexity of figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the forgotten role of Loyalists and Indigenous nations, and the Revolution's echoes in contemporary America."
A looming TikTok deal with Trump-aligned insiders would constitute a massive giveaway, shifting political influence toward algorithmic platforms loyal to the president and away from legacy media. A documentary on the American Revolution examines competing legacies—liberty and exclusion, heroism and hypocrisy—highlighting moral complexity in figures like Washington and Jefferson and the neglected roles of Loyalists and Indigenous nations. A historical study of Soviet dissidence recounts Alexander Esenin-Volpin's insistence that Soviet laws be followed exactly as written as a form of legal resistance. These threads connect contemporary media power, national memory, and principled dissent.
Read at The Atlantic
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