Weekend Videos -- Would-Be Tyrants and Real-Life Giants

This is an extraordinary piece of television. It is, almost without fail, pitch perfect. It acknowledges the gravity of the moment while keeping a healthy sense of perspective. As he himself points out, the fate of a talk show is trivial compared to many other things going on, but the issues it raises are not trivial at all. For those of us who are way too into the history of the medium, the monologue opens with a 65-year-old callback to perhaps the first talk show censorship scandal.

As Josh Marshall and many others have pointed out, possibly the worst outcome for Sinclair is having its viewers learn more about who owns their local stations. A few years ago, John Oliver did an excellent segment on Sinclair that has only become more relevant. I particularly liked the way around 1:20 Oliver followed up his teasing of local news by acknowledging that local television journalists often do extraordinary work, and have, to some degree, stepped up to fill the void left by the decline of newspapers. 

Finally, just to end on a less infuriating note, here is a very cool story about the making of The Princess Bride.

“The Princess Bride” turns 38 today. Here’s a great tale about Andre the Giant — as told by Mandy Patinkin. [image or embed]

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) September 25, 2025 at 7:27 AM