Wiretap: DIY terrorist messaging has been bad for journalists

Jeffrey Goldberg writes in the Atlantic of the time before beheadings — a time when Islamic extremists wanted to persuade reporters, not kill them. When terrorists became able to use video and social media to get their message across, the dynamic changed. Extremists became ever more extreme. Western reporters became less relevant. And starting with Danny Pearl, murder became the message.

John Hickenlooper tells New York Times columnist Frank Bruni that Americans turned to businessmen to be their governors in the last election. He says it like it’s a good thing. Is it?

The lessons of Ferguson and the police shooting of Michael Brown: Overreaction and abdication of responsibility. Via Amy Davidson at the New Yorker.

Note to libertarians who voted Republican: GOP senators block NSA overhaul. Fifty-four Democrats and four Republicans vote for the bill, which fell two votes short of the 60 that were needed. Via the New York Times. Vox, meanwhile, explains what it means.

On immigration: Barack Obama has the law and Ronald Reagan on his side. Via Erwin Chemerinsky and Samuel Kleiner in the New Republic.

How has Uber gotten so wildly popular and so widely criticized all at once? Via the Washington Post.

In the least shocking story of the day: The House picks its 21 committee chairman, and 20 of them are men. And in other diversity news: Of the 20 chairmen, 19 are white men and one is of Portuguese descent. Via the National Journal.

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