The social, political and media analysis of news images.
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Signaling Strangelove: The New Yorker Cover’s Brilliant Take on SignalGate
Trump’s Mugshot as White House Power Play
Trump’s gilded mugshot guards the Oval Office—a warning to all who pass. As Ukraine’s president learned, this intimidating checkpoint signals the fate awaiting anyone who challenges Dear Leader. By Michael Shaw and Cara Finnegan In a narrow hallway between the President’s secretary’s space and the Oval Office, Trump’s framed...
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The State of Disunion
I’m breaking down key images from Trump’s 2025 State of the Union—moments capturing a chamber in splinters, where resistance took many forms and silence would have meant complicity. By Michael Shaw “You have no mandate! You have no mandate to cut Medicare!” Pundits blamed Democrats for losing their cool. But incitement...
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Trump’s Village People Takeover – Why This Matters Now
Is Trump’s MAGA theater still hypnotizing America—or is it finally awakening the resistance? By Michael Shaw One plays a cowboy, one plays a construction worker, and another plays a president. What’s genuinely unsettling isn’t the spectacle itself—it’s how quickly we’ve normalized it. Trump dancing with the Village People at...
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The Visual Politics of the LA Fires
From a man rescuing Old Glory to a haunting ‘stairway to nowhere,’ key photos from LA’s devastating fires expose America’s most profound social divisions inflamed by Trump’s sabotage. By Michael Shaw In our latest short Chatting the Pictures video, Cara and I analyze a defining image from the LA fires: a...
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A Portrait that Dares to Expose Musk’s Insanity
Mark Mahaney’s portrait captures the power and madness of Elon Musk, whose elevation from tech titan to democracy’s most dangerous private citizen mirrors a government fracturing under his influence. By Michael Shaw and Cara Finnegan Media and popular culture glorify and indulge the aberrant personalities of men like Donald...
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