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- Gen Zer Solves NPR’s Spotify Comments Mystery That Baffled Staffers: ‘These ...
(Screengrab via X) Confused NPR staffers who thought a stream of bizarre Spotify comments might be the work of bots discovered a far more human explanation after a Gen Z colleague took one look and found kids had quietly turned the network’s podcast pages into makeshift chatrooms. This American Life host Ira Glass recounted the mystery, which he promised would be the subject of his upcoming show, after a producer of NPR’s Wild Card podcast noticed apparently nonsensical comments appearing beneath episodes. Some NPR podcasts started getting mysterious comments on Spotify. They made no sense to the staff reading them – until someone from a younger generation cracked the code. Hear the story: https://t.co/0gLhP4L8rL pic.twitter.com/cppqY3MaWz — This American Life (@ThisAmerLife) September 23, 2026 In a promotional clip for his episode on the incident, Glass detailed how the staffer found someone had written, “ah, okay, MH.” Another posted, “Gilgamesh quit and I’m crying.” A third announced: “Last Friday I broke up with my GF.” The exchanges looked sufficiently strange that staff suspected automated accounts and reported them to Spotify, which deleted the posts. Then a younger NPR employee intervened. “These are not bots, these are kids,” Glass recalled the Gen Z staffer Hannah Chin explaining. The apparent trick was simple, children too young to use conventional social media or unable to access it were seeking out low-traffic podcast comment sections where parents and teachers were unlikely to look. Glass tracked down one of the young users and asked why NPR had become the venue of choice. “Um, I think we just looked for podcasts that didn’t have many comments,” the child replied. “I see, so you picked NPR because it didn’t seem very popular,” Glass said. “Yeah,” the kid replied. “I tell you, buddy, I do a public radio show and that hurts a little to hear it,” Glass joked. “Sorry,” the child said. The discovery echoes a phenomenon NPR itself documented in 2025, when staff monitoring comments for TED Radio Hour noticed children descending on years-old episodes and using the threads for conversations unrelated to the shows. One employee described initially finding around 20 comments beneath a three-year-old episode, including exchanges such as, “No, you’re so pretty. You’re so pretty.” A later episode accumulated comments “into the 90s.” Staffers floated the possibility that students were using Spotify because other platforms were blocked at school or prohibited… [TheTopNews] Read More.28 mins ago - ‘Is That Really the Pitch?’ NewsNation Host Confronts RNC Chair Asking GOP V...
NewsNation host Blake Burman grilled Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters on Wednesday after the GOP leader left him stunned by asking voters, just 41 days out from the midterms, to give President Donald Trump “more time” to deliver on his “Golden Age” promises. Burman confronted Gruters with a string of economic indicators after playing a montage of Trump repeatedly declaring that America had entered a “golden age.” “But when you look at what’s going on right now, gas prices nationally, Joe, $4.47 on average. Diesel prices on average, $6.50. Mortgage rates right now are at above 7% nationally. Inflation is at 3.4%, while average hourly earnings are lower than that, at 3,1%,” he said. “How are you making the case that that is the golden age?” Burman asked. Gruters responded by describing Trump’s presidency as “a great American comeback” and began touting investment under the administration before Burman cut in. “Some would say, – whoa, whoa – we’ll come back if, 18 months in, 20 months in, those are the results,” the host said. The RNC chair returned, blaming former President Joe Biden for the economic conditions Trump inherited and defending the president’s record, while also turning to the administration’s handling of the conflict with Iran. Gruters said Trump was working for American workers and argued that his foreign policy remained focused on protecting the country, adding: “And so this war will come and go. He’ll get things back on track. We just gotta give him more time. We gotta have Republicans in both the House and the Senate.” That prompted Burman to zero in on what Republicans are asking voters to accept heading into the midterms. “But there’s going to be some folks who listen to you who just say we got to give him more time. Is that really the pitch heading into November? Give us more time?” he asked. Gruters pointed to investment, tax cuts and Trump-backed savings initiatives while arguing the president had “transformed the Republican Party into a working man’s party.” “He will get America back to work. GDP is high, stock prices are high,” Gruters said. “Yes, he has empathy for those who are working and who are struggling. We gotta help them, but we help them by growing.” He then contrasted the Republican economic agenda with what he called “the communism utopia that the left offers in Havana and Beijing… [TheTopNews] Read More.1 hour ago - READ: Judge Shreds Justice Department’s Explanation for White House Press Ban ...
President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to board Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) United States District Judge Timothy Kelly ripped the Justice Department’s attempts to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to ban three major news outlets from the White House, saying in his late-night decision that he was “skeptical” of the explanation. DOJ claimed CNN, MS NOW and Politico were targeted because of stories which endangered national security, a notion later grossly undercut by reports that said such stories included one about bad “vibes” at the Republican Midterm Convention and another in which Vice President JD Vance was unmasked as the “anonymous” source. The legal precedents at issue required the government to give the reporters notice beforehand and a chance to protest, the judge found. “One standard Defendants appear to offer—reflected in letters they sent to Plaintiffs on September 22, 2026, identifying their objectionable reporting— is so vague it hardly does the trick,” he wrote, citing the government’s explanation after the fact to the news orgs that they’d “exhibited behavior in violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex.” While DOJ attempted to argue that the legal precedents at issue should be overturned, Kelly said it wasn’t enough. “Maybe — but this Court is bound by D.C. Circuit precedent, full stop,” he wrote. “The Court is skeptical — at least on this record — that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes,” he added. “Defendants offer no declarations or other support—classified or unclassified—explaining how any of the reporting they identified in their letters to Plaintiffs damaged the national security,” Kelly noted. “The declarations they do provide include general background about classified information, but the declarants are senior officials in the Department of Defense who have no direct knowledge of how reporters operate in the White House, or about any of the facts at issue here.” Read the complete filing here.The post READ: Judge Shreds Justice Department’s Explanation for White House Press Ban in Late-Night Filing: ‘Skeptical’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.1 hour ago - Jimmy Fallon Unveils ‘Uber Trump’ Ad After President Personally Greets China...Jimmy Fallon turned President Donald Trump’s personal airport welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping, collecting him from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, into a mock ride-share commercial Wednesday night, introducing viewers to what he dubbed “Uber Trump.” Xi arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday for a three-day state visit, where Trump greeted the Chinese leader on the tarmac. The two presidents are due to hold talks as Washington and Beijing seek to manage tensions over trade, artificial intelligence, Taiwan and other geopolitical flashpoints. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the base before an elaborate arrival ceremony that included a red carpet, military music, and a B-1 bomber flyover. Xi’s trip marks his first visit to Washington since 2015. Fallon seized on the president’s unusual role in the welcome during Wednesday’s episode of The Tonight Show: “Earlier today, Xi Jinping arrived in Washington, and in a break from tradition, Trump actually picked him up from the airport. That’s true. Yeah, Trump did an airport pickup. I might explain this with an ad.” The show then cut to a spoof commercial advertising a new presidential transportation option. “When do you need an airport ride? Forget Uber X and Uber Black. Just order Uber Trump. You might be wondering, isn’t the president busy with more important things?” the voiceover narrated, cutting to a Trump clip at a rally saying: “Not even a little bit.” “In fact, he’s the perfect Uber driver,” the ad continued. The fake commercial cycled through footage of Trump while listing the supposed perks of getting a lift from the commander in chief, each boast immediately undercut by a carefully chosen clip of the president. “He’s got an electric car,” the ad touted, before cutting to Trump professing his love of Tesla. “He speaks multiple languages,” it continued, followed by footage of the president laboriously reading Spanish aloud. “All you have to do is cover the price of gas,” the ad added, a pointed punchline as pump prices keep climbing amid the Iran war. Another clip showed Trump with his eyes closed, with the commercial joking that he would be sleeping “if you’re not in the mood to talk.” “Perfect,” Fallon quipped. Trump is set to host Xi for a White House summit and state dinner on Thursday. Watch above via NBC.The post Jimmy Fallon Unveils ‘Uber Trump’… [TheTopNews] Read More.1 hour ago
- Trump Tears Into MS NOW’s Ford’s Theatre Renaming Report: ‘Degenerates and...
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) President Donald Trump denied that his administration is considering putting his name on Ford’s Theatre, trashing the “Degenerates and Losers” behind a report that officials have floated the site where former President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated as one of several federal landmarks that could be renamed in his honor. MS NOW first reported Wednesday that White House staff had been circulating a list of government properties where Trump’s name might be added, citing people familiar with the discussions. Ford’s Theatre, an active venue and the Washington landmark where Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, was among the sites under consideration, according to the report. Hours after publishing the piece, Trump rejected the claim in a Truth Social post, writing: The story that the White House, or me, want to affix my name to Ford’s Theatre, in Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, is a ridiculous lie. It is FAKE NEWS! Who would possibly want a name on such a tragic place? The Dumocrats suffer from serious Trump Derangement Syndrome. They are Degenerates and Losers who make up lie after lie, and this Ford’s Theatre Hoax is just another one of their never-ending, malicious falsehoods to try to discredit and demean. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP (Screengrab via Truth Social) A former administration official told MS NOW that aides sometimes advance naming proposals as a way to “flatter” the president. The report said it was unclear how officials envisioned attaching Trump’s name to Ford’s Theatre, which remains an operating theater and museum and is part of the National Park Service. An administration official told MS NOW the idea had been discussed but said they did not know its current status. The dispute comes amid a broader fight over efforts to rename prominent federal institutions in Trump’s name. Earlier this month, a federal judge again blocked the Kennedy Center’s board bid to add Trump’s name to the performing arts complex, ruling that the move conflicted with an earlier court order and federal law. Ford’s Theatre presents another legal hurdle, given its status as a national historic site. That means any formal renaming would likely require congressional action.The post Trump Tears Into MS NOW’s Ford’s Theatre Renaming Report: ‘Degenerates and Losers’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - Crooked Media Expands Political Podcast Ad Network
Crooked Media is expanding its political podcast and digital advertising network, adding "The Adam Mockler Show," "The Argument" and "Weekly Skews" to its roster of shows represented for host-read advertising. The three shows join "No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen" and "The Joy Reid Show" in Crooked's [TheTopNews] Read More.6 hours ago
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