563 Comments

You deserve all the accolades and more. Congrats - truth tellers for the win!

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Apr 10Liked by Suzy Weiss

Bari - DO NOT pursue numbers of subscribers for their own sake. You will grow on the merits.

If you are required to meet subscription targets to please your new investors, you will destroy The Free Press in the process. Get rid of them and grow organically.

You need investors who will not interfere, and cannot interfere.

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Apr 10Liked by Suzy Weiss

Well said! This is so true and I hope Bari and all of The Free Press staff adhere to this advice. Commercialization (including chasing subscriber numbers) is probably the number one threat to the continued success of The Free Press.

Being able to make this comment is what finally motivated my to upgrade to a paid subscription.

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This is interesting. Letters from an American, which is a left leaning publication, used to be number 1, at least from what I recall. So the fact that the FP, which may be slightly more right leaning, even though it’s primarily in the middle is number one, gives a good gauge for where Substack may be going.

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Interesting conclusion and one I would agree with. But why do we think that? Likely nearly everyone who works at the Free Press is a left of center person and they believe left of center thoughts.

Elon Musk said it best when he was accused of being a right winger. To paraphrase, he said "Im the same, it's just that the Democratic party moved so far to the left that I look right wing". And I think that's what's happening here.

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Although I subscribe to a decent number of Substacks (including multiple paid subscriptions) I'm concerned about the impact of Substack's business model, versus the decline in traditional newspapers.

Substack has a high likelihood of increasing the degree to which people get their news in a "biased silo" manner (i.e. echo chambers). It's common for people to gravitate to news outlets that validate their own biases. So, it's extremely important for truly unbiased outlets to be popular and successful, in order for more people to get an unbiased as well as factual perspective of current events. That includes avoiding the common media practice of "bias by omission".

Hopefully TFP will continue as one of those unbiased outlets (even as they strive for more subscribers).

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SUre hope you are correct. I'd hate to lose all my trusted daily sources if Substack goes wokey-woke, or decides to conform to goobermint demands.

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Wait, are you saying the FP is right wing in general or just right of Letters?

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It seems to me that TFP is almost libertarian.

Bari was a leftist until she encountered a hive of other leftists who treated her, and anyone else who thinks for him/herself, as an outcast. And on Oct 7th, as she said, she went to bed a Democrat and woke up a conservative. Encounters with reality will do that to you....if you can think for yourself.

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Bari's a social neutral neocon, Nellie's an MSNBC-watching Hillary worshipper, and Oliver does whatever Bari tells him.

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Beware Conquest's 2nd Law

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As u said don’t make the mistake of persuing numbers. Keep the quality up and the numbers will take care of themselves!

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A good reminder indeed. Recall the early days of Fox: "we report ... you decide." Days of a bygone era - but they did increase their viewers.

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I totally agree. To quote a line from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” You’ve built a platform for free-thinking people, because that is what many of us want. I’ve been there from the early days of Common Sense, and I’m very glad for your success. Just don’t sit on your laurels. Kudos.

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There are MILLIONS of truth tellers. They will subscribe.

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Well said, Sparta. FP should not go for the clicks - courage is lost that way.

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100% correct.

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It is us that should be grateful, Bari. You and your crew have re-invented real journalism and we are all the better for it. Don't worry about growing. In the end, the truth always prevails. Never stop.

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Better than the current crop of media is not clearing a significant hurdle. Still need more balance and could use an office in flyover country with not just color diversity but thought diversity.

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Who is second?

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I signed up as a paid subscriber almost as soon as Common Sense dropped on Substack. I don't always agree with TFP POV and sometimes I am yelling at my screen, but TFP is exactly what true journalism should be. Kol Hakovod and why stop at 1M? TFP is headed for greatness

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Same with me, here from the beginning. Sometimes I do have to remind myself that when TFP presents something I disagree with, it's okay - otherwise they'd just be another echo chamber.

I do keep a wary eye on them though, hoping they stay true to their original mission.

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Me too

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Being able to disagree and yell at the screen and yet keep reading is what makes The Free Press better than the rest.

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Same here.

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"I don't always agree with TFP POV and sometimes I am yelling at my screen"

Mate ... good on you! The very fact that you still pay for a service that you occasionally disagree with - even vehemently - is exactly what we need more of online.

Too many people out there subscribe to the "one drop" theory of intellectual contamination: they are so frightened of coming into contact with a single view that's contrary to their own (or that of the group they're in that are fossilising those views) that they abandon forever the writer or outlet who expressed it for fear that their ideological purity would be ruined.

So again ... full marks for keeping your mind open, and paying to do so.

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The OGs need free tshirts.

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I will even pay, but I want it to be LIMITED EDITION!! I want the props!!!

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Moi aussi.

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I believe that's French for "I'm Australian".

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;-)

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When you do agree with everything you’re hearing on a platform, that’s the time to beware! So refreshing to be here, so grateful to have found somewhere where real journalism is alive and well!

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Me too

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The articles don’t make me feel like yelling so much as the comments sometimes. Thinking specifically of Compoof 2.0!

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True that!!

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Dear Bari, I'm here because you told the New York Times to stuff it. It took bravery and principles. As a Jew, I was horrified by the anti-Semitic treatment you were receiving from your co-workers, made worse by the fact that your editor did nothing to rein in the abuse when you complained. It was the first time I learned that ideological corruption had overtaken mainstream media. A Times reader for many years, I cancelled my subscription and followed you here.

A big thank-you to Chris Best, co-founder and CEO of Substack, for his commitment to free speech, and to you, founder and editor-in-chief of the Free Press. You go, girl.

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Ditto that, on Bari but also on Chris Best and his commitment to free speech and the ability for journalists to practice their craft without corporate or political muzzling.

Seems like many ex-NYT subscribers have adopted Bari. Here's hoping MSM continues to bleed subscribers and money and political activists masquerading as journalists until they put 2 and 2 together and go back to actual journalism.

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Here's hoping...

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The echo chamber of NPR and NYTs are not long for this world. Been here since day 1.

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I'd like to believe that, and maybe someday it will be a reality. Clearly, the Free Press is making a dent. But I'm 72 and I doubt I'll see the death of the echo chamber in my lifetime.

The MSM is the mouthpiece of the government, and as such it shapes and determines what its consumers know and believe. We really do live in the land of alternate facts and narratives. There's almost no common ground between me, a former liberal, and the people who've been in my social sphere for decades, in terms of what we know.

I've been sending friends and family articles from The Free Press since its inception, but only two people -- one a journalist and the other a scientist -- have subscribed. I surmise that there's something about the objectivity required to do those two jobs that enabled their curiosity. Of course, nobody is obligated to subscribe to a newspaper. Still, the lack of curiosity is interesting.

Why did I change, while my peers didn't? We all saw the same censorship and corruption of narratives in the Times --- what happened to Bari, as well as James Bennet, being two examples -- but they didn't care. Maybe it was simpler to just blame Trump for everything and hate the people who voted for him, while basking in the glow of their moral superiority.

Do they still respect the rule of law? It depends on who did what to whom. Do they still believe in free speech? It depends on who said what to whom. It just depends.

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You feel like a kindred spirit. I live in a sea of “progressivism” on the west coast. The cognitive dissonance in many of my friends is beyond belief.

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I hear you.

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“You’re one of 630,591 Free Pressers. Help us make you one in a million.”

———————————————————

*frantic phone call from Soros NGO to FBI headquarters

*Nicole Hanoi-Jones snaps pencil in half

*Peter Beinart punches hole in drywall

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Sunny Hostin declares TFP racist, and a contributor to climate change.

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The ice caps are receding to get away from the hosts of The View.

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The people on the view and their audience have to be the dumbest, most stupid, least educated people on Earth. They are all probably graduates from compro's university, Moron U. where the not so bright go.

Here is an example of Rosie O'Donald's genus after 9/11: "I do believe that it's the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible." and her dumb ass audience clapped approval.

How does this ignoramus explain how steel is made? It is made in a Bessimer furnace, dumbass!

Unbelievable!

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Hi LonesomePolecat, good to see you hitting the spot again!

It's very difficult to make much progress in discussion in this post-truth era. That's why the Free Press is so important.

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I looked at your picture and I think I may be as old as you or older. Two old geezers participating on a newsletter.

How great!

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I'm 72 years old and try to keep fit enough for a bit of mountain walking by regular running ... but I'm reliably informed that I look much older after I've run 3 miles!

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There’s a guy commenting on this Substack who goes all in on the Building 7 nonsense. Haven’t seen him in a while. But it is crazy stuff v

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I'd retreat if I were an icecap. Those deranged harpies emit A LOT of hot air.

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NASA sends rover to determine if their is intelligent life on The View. - Today's top headline on the Babylon Bee.

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This made me laugh out loud.

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And yet another individual banishes TFP to the gassy planet called the moon.

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So you heard Sheila Jackson Lee's ridiculous speech at the Houston high school? She's got to be the dumbest congressperson ever.

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deletedApr 10
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Not BS anything!

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Ooops reply to wrong thingy

😵‍💫😵‍💫😇😇

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And a killer of ci-cah-das. Sorry. Couldn't resist.

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Apr 11·edited Apr 11

When Whoopie and Joy have to say you are cuckoo for cocoa puffs, you're really not so Sunny.

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As I suspected All along!

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This weeks best comment.

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This is funny. I needed this today. Fighting bills all over trying to eliminate charter schools. Thanks for the laugh.

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And a hearty congrats and you go girl!!! for your efforts.

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Thank you!❤️

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Charter school do not equal racial segregation. Spread the word.

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Keep fighting the good fight

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Thanks! Everything I work on might be for nothing. :(

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Apr 10·edited Apr 10

Keith Olbermann declares Bari "The Worst Person In The World!"

(Edted) i ar a mor godder spelier.

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Keep Olbermann’s name out your mouf when commenting on this site!

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Trump will have to try harder.

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Once again, Kevin, you are responsible for about 1/3 of the subscriptions.

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Still shining! Love your comments. Today’s is especially good. Almost poetic!

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As a poet, would my pen name be B.S. Eliot or Maga Angelou?

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Gotta love commenters who still know something of literature and language.

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Maga Angelou would be more adequate to our times. They don’t know who this Eliot you speak is, but Angelou and her BS is very au currant (au courant).

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Pair of ragged claws in the rooms women come and go.

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I just turned 73 and damn if the bottom of my trousers aren’t indeed rolled…

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Not sure how poetry is relevant, but Hell can't be worse than folding fitted sheets while listening to Maya Angelou drone on.. and on.. and on..

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Both are a choice, you know that, right?

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Hell is not a choice, you know that, right?

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I apologize for overlooking the Hell bit. But for me it sort of is. I’m a Saganist😌

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🤣🤣

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You fill a vacuum in the market. Conservatives who are searching for traditional liberal journalism to balance conservative press and increasingly left of center people who recognize that they are teetering on a cliff that has been eroded by a tide of progressive sewage swept in with the neomarxist march through our institutions.

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This nails it

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This distorts it. I’m a liberal who comes here for alternative stories. But the journalism here isn’t always thorpugh or well reported. Just different. There’s no cliff, no teetering. Just this desire of everyone to over dramatize and throw the mainstream press baby out with the bath water.

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You ain't kidding. And while some topics are treated somewhat equitably, Diversity & Inclusion is trashed incessantly, and since October 7 of last year, the drumbeat of religious war has been strong, in the stories and for sure in the comments.

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DEI, like affirmative action, is institutional racism. When set up a system to judge a person by their skin color or racial identity, that is racism. DEI deserves to be trashed and eliminated. Fortunately, the world is starting to wake up to the evil that is DEI.

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Which is the response I would expect, from people who just believe what they read and don't actually have understanding about what diversity and inclusion are, and what they are not. What you wrote doesn't describe the purpose or the process of diversity, it's just a hot take heard from someone else.

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I don't think you have ever been forced to sit through one of those "seminars." BigT is correct. DEI in practice, judges people by their demographic characteristics.

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And, not to nitpick, but Berliner's inauthentic-damage-control-masquerading-as-a-mea-culpa was not brave. Bari, leaving the NYT was.

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I disagree. Try to think for a moment about what it takes to realize the organization you’ve believed in and given decades of your life to is on the wrong track… and then to speak up about it, first internally and, when that failed to get results, out in public! Especially in the toxic Progressive circles he works in. Yes, Bari quit her job, but in some ways it’s harder to stay in a hostile environment. It’s completely unrealistic to expect someone who’s spent a lifetime left of center to get all the way over to your point of view.

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Absolutely agree.

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It was definitely brave, given the cancel culture atmosphere at NPR and other leftist places. But the interview was rather soft; where were the hard-edged questions? All I can hope is that Berliner continues to speak out and eventually finds the nerve to quit NPR and denounce it for the propaganda machine it is, like Bari did the NYT.

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While I enjoyed Berliner’s moment, that it took him this long to have his catharsis is not celebratory moment for a “journalist”. Sorry, the notion that “fish are the last to know they are swimming in water” doesn’t apply here. They jump out of the tank, like Bari did. Maybe he’ll go on to do great things like Bari and the rest of TFP? Fingers and fins crossed.

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Congratulations and thank you for quality journalism!

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I am delighted to be 1/630,591th of that success. :-)

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Congratulations! TFP is not just a media organization, it’s a movement.

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Berliner: mea culpa, public hair shirt wearing, virtue signaling.

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Congratulations. When Elon Musk chose Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, and Michael Shellenberger and then others to help unpack the Twitter Files, I thought...well Elon is a smart man, who are these people?

Elon was right. On looking up the three people mentioned, I signed up for Common Sense, then Matt Taibbi. I plan to add Shellenberger as well. These have become my strongly preferred sources of news. I no longer hear well so rapid fire TV news escapes me, and I can't comment back anyway. My local newspaper is only useful for local news, the rest having a uniformly progressive (AP) slant.

Thanks for doing what you do. I will forward this post. And while I'm at it, a big thank you to Substack as well for making real journalism possible.

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Those of us present from the beginning are proud of what you have achieved and have reason to brag about our own foresight in knowing whom to back. Well done to you and to all of us.

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I just this morning got my dental hygienist to sign up for The Free Press while she was cleaning my teeth‼️

I got my 87 yr old Dad on board and so many friends too!!! The FP is a breath of fresh air from what feels like Orwells 1984. 🩵🩵🩵🩵

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Bari - DO NOT pursue numbers of subscribers for their own sake. You will grow on the merits.

If you are required to meet subscription targets to please your new investors, you will destroy The Free Press in the process. Get rid of them and grow organically.

You need investors who will not interfere, and cannot interfere.

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Yeah, ok, point taken. But can’t you allow Bari and her team to wallow in self congratulations and joy for one teensy, weensy minute, in celebration of a huge accomplishment. Must there always be a Cassandra in every moment of bliss?

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Is Elon available?😅

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Your success reminded me of Charles Krauthammer’s observation respecting the success of FoxNews: presenting a viewpoint shared by half of the country made its success unsurprising.

You’ve tapped into a large population of people who want information to think about, not information about what to think. Thanks for you.

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Said well.

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Send a thank you note to Jordan Peterson- I loved your interview with him so much that I sought you out on Substack immediately. Congratulations and thank you for doing all the hard work of bringing the world good journalism.

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Outstanding and congratulations! TFP has been my go-to for fact-based news for two years now. Keep up the great work.

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