The always-superb Tim Alberta has a new piece in The Atlantic: “The Operator,” about Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
As you might recall, Shapiro was a strong consideration to be Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election, but she ultimately went with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
For his story, Alberta recounted the time he told Shapiro that Harris had taken some verbal shots at him in her book, “107 Days,” which came out in September.
Alberta wrote, “I asked Shapiro if Harris had given him any heads-up about her book. She had not, he said. Then I told him that Harris had taken some shots at him. Shapiro furrowed his brow and crossed his arms. ‘K,’ he said.”
Alberta continued, “The man I observed over the next several minutes was unrecognizable. Gone was his equilibrium. He moved between outrage and exasperation as I relayed the excerpts. Harris had accused him, in essence, of measuring the drapes, even inquiring about featuring Pennsylvania artists in the vice-presidential residence; of insisting ‘that he would want to be in the room for every decision’ Harris might make; and, more generally, of hijacking the conversation when she interviewed him for the job, to the point where she reminded him that he would not be co-president.”
In response to the claim concerning the residence’s art, Shapiro told Alberta, “She wrote that in her book? That’s complete and utter (expletive). I can tell you that her accounts are just blatant lies.”
Alberta wrote, “What seemed to bother Shapiro, more than any one detail, was Harris portraying him in ways consistent with the whispers that had dogged him throughout the vetting process and throughout his career: that he was selfish, petty, and monomaniacally ambitious.”
When asked if he felt betrayed by someone he has known for more than 20 years, Shapiro told Alberta, “I mean, she’s trying to sell books and cover her ass.”
Alberta said he felt Shapiro was disgusted with himself for saying that, and then collected himself before saying, “I shouldn’t say ‘cover her ass.’ I think that’s not appropriate. She’s trying to sell books. Period.”
News about the news
Are you following the news less closely than you used to? A new survey from the Pew Research Center says you probably are.
In August of this year, 36% of U.S. adults say they follow the news “all or most of the time.” In 2016, that number was 51%.
In 2025, 38% of those surveyed said they follow the news “some of the time.” That is up from 31% in 2016. And, 18% say they follow it only “now and then,” compared with 12% in 2016.
Having less interest in the news is noticeable among party lines. Republicans and independents who lean Republican following the news “all or most of the time” in 2016 were at 57%. Today, it’s at 36%. However, Democrats and independents who lean Democrat have seen a decrease of only 10 points (49% to 39%). Then again, there’s not much difference between 36% (Republicans) and 39% (Democrats) who follow the news closely these days.
Pew’s Naomi Forman-Katz wrote, “Republicans’ trust in national and local news outlets has also declined more than Democrats’ since 2016. And Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to both use and trust many major news sources. However, Americans saying they follow the news at lower rates does not necessarily mean they’re getting less news than before. For example, 54% of U.S. adults said in early 2025 that they mostly get political news because they happen to come across it, rather than because they’re looking for it (45%).
Nuzzi-Lizza leftovers
New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg weighs in on the whole Olivia Nuzzi-Ryan Lizza journalism soap opera mess in “A Serious Journalism Scandal Hiding Inside a Frivolous Sexual One.”
Goldberg writes, “An odd thing about the book — one that gives it an aloof, affectless quality — is that Nuzzi doesn’t seem to recognize that her collaboration with Kennedy was a grave professional betrayal. She blames Lizza, whom she refers to as ‘the man I did not marry,’ for making her private life public as part of a harassment campaign against her, and seems to believe that by firing her, New York was complicit. The magazine, she writes, ‘had been spooked into participating in what I considered a siege of hyper-domestic terror.’ Her total lack of introspection, at least on the page, is vaguely uncanny.”
Goldberg, and others, have made this fair point: If many of the things Nuzzi wrote about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in her just-released memoir “American Canto” are true, it would have been good to know before he was confirmed to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Nuzzi said she had an inappropriate, but not physical relationship with RFK — someone she had written about for New York Magazine.
In her book, and in an interview on Tim Miller’s xxxxxx podcast, Nuzzi alleges Kennedy had used psychedelics despite claiming to be “sober” for years.
Miller asked Nuzzi, “You had information that you could have shared. … RFK wasn’t even a Republican — it’s possible that these senators could have not, you know, confirmed him, and you didn’t share anything about him. Why? Like, why? Did you still love him?”
Nuzzi said, “I don’t know how to responsibly handle this on camera with you here. I’m writing in that scene that you’re talking about how I felt privately, about my private reaction, how I felt privately.”
Oh, one more thing …
Nuzzi’s book is, mostly, getting panned by reviewers, as I mentioned in Wednesday’s newsletter. However, The Los Angeles Times’ Leigh Haber writes, “Yes, we give you permission to hate-read ‘American Canto.’”
Sports pods of the year
