Phil Hornshaw
@philhornshaw.com
Freelance games journalist and consultant, former game assessment analyst at NetEase. Bylines all over but mostly @GameSpot. My books THE TIME TRAVELER'S GUIDE TO TIME TRAVEL and THE SPACE HERO'S GUIDE TO GLORY are hilarious. https://www.philhornshaw.com
Things that would have gotten me a failing grade in journalism school in college or shitcanned from the student newspaper.
December 30, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Things that would have gotten me a failing grade in journalism school in college or shitcanned from the student newspaper.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
Reminder that years ago it was found out that the FBI straight up made up a whole bunch of fake forensic sciences, plural. People have gone to jail and been executed due to literally pseudoscience.
Hair forensics, for instance, is totally nonsense.
They admitted it.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Hair forensics, for instance, is totally nonsense.
They admitted it.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
The FBI Faked an Entire Field of Forensic Science
For more stories like this, like Slate on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
slate.com
December 30, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Reminder that years ago it was found out that the FBI straight up made up a whole bunch of fake forensic sciences, plural. People have gone to jail and been executed due to literally pseudoscience.
Hair forensics, for instance, is totally nonsense.
They admitted it.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Hair forensics, for instance, is totally nonsense.
They admitted it.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Remember in like 2016 when SNL did that sketch about the brave Republican hero who stood up to Trump and the joke was that person was TBD, well the media has decided to fill that space with Marjorie "Jewish Space Lasers" Greene.
“Our side has been trained by Donald Trump to never apologize and to never admit when you’re wrong.” Read the inside story of how Marjorie Taylor Greene went from zealous Trump cheerleader to his loudest Republican critic: nyti.ms/3Lbzi88
December 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Remember in like 2016 when SNL did that sketch about the brave Republican hero who stood up to Trump and the joke was that person was TBD, well the media has decided to fill that space with Marjorie "Jewish Space Lasers" Greene.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
It's important for everyone to understand that this was by design by The Powers That Be, who experienced existential panic in the first half of Biden's first term as workers had a favorable job market for the first time in two decades. They put in huge effort to stopping it.
December 28, 2025 at 11:10 PM
It's important for everyone to understand that this was by design by The Powers That Be, who experienced existential panic in the first half of Biden's first term as workers had a favorable job market for the first time in two decades. They put in huge effort to stopping it.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
Didn't you guys write this exact same story about billionaires in NYC about Mamdani only to write a 'nah SIKE' follow up like a week after he won when all the billionaires realized they don't have Zabars in like Rochester
Billionaires are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents.
A Wealth Tax Floated in California Has Billionaires Thinking of Leaving
It’s uncertain whether the proposal will reach the statewide ballot in November, but some billionaires like Peter Thiel and Larry Page may be unwilling to take the risk.
nyti.ms
December 27, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Didn't you guys write this exact same story about billionaires in NYC about Mamdani only to write a 'nah SIKE' follow up like a week after he won when all the billionaires realized they don't have Zabars in like Rochester
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
I remember the phrase "they can't be allowed to melt back into society" re: the de-Baathification of Iraq after the war there. Like everything about that experience, the attempt was cynical, stupid, and botched. But there really should be a plan about what we do with guys like these in the future.
ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries.
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
December 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM
I remember the phrase "they can't be allowed to melt back into society" re: the de-Baathification of Iraq after the war there. Like everything about that experience, the attempt was cynical, stupid, and botched. But there really should be a plan about what we do with guys like these in the future.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
One confusing thing about liberal media outlets like the NY Times and CNN is that they're extremely right-wing:
open.substack.com/pub/thecolum... by
@ahjohnson.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/thecolum... by
@ahjohnson.bsky.social
US Media Rushes to Manufacture Legal Legitimacy for Trump’s Venezuela Oil Tanker Piracy
Venezuela oil exports are not “black market” and US sanctions are not “international sanctions.” Why does our media keep saying otherwise?
open.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 4:35 PM
One confusing thing about liberal media outlets like the NY Times and CNN is that they're extremely right-wing:
open.substack.com/pub/thecolum... by
@ahjohnson.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/thecolum... by
@ahjohnson.bsky.social
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
Maaaan I miss ethics in journalism that shit was hot
December 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Maaaan I miss ethics in journalism that shit was hot
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.
Congratulations to Stephen Macedo & Frances Lee, whose book In Covid's Wake has been recognized as:
⭐ A @newyorker.com Best Book of the Year
⭐ An @economist.com Book of the Year
⭐ A @wsj.com Best Book of the Year
Learn more about this eye-opening book: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
⭐ A @newyorker.com Best Book of the Year
⭐ An @economist.com Book of the Year
⭐ A @wsj.com Best Book of the Year
Learn more about this eye-opening book: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
December 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM
This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
archive.org/details/ceco... a higher quality version.
cecot-60mins : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
60 minutes segment on cecot
archive.org
December 23, 2025 at 12:18 AM
archive.org/details/ceco... a higher quality version.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
It used to be that the United States would use Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to transmit truth across the borders of repressive regimes.
Now the work of American reporters, having been censored, is being smuggled across the border to reach Americans.
Now the work of American reporters, having been censored, is being smuggled across the border to reach Americans.
The 60 Minutes piece on the Trump Administration’s torture prison that Bari Weiss doesn’t want you to see has leaked.
December 22, 2025 at 11:01 PM
It used to be that the United States would use Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to transmit truth across the borders of repressive regimes.
Now the work of American reporters, having been censored, is being smuggled across the border to reach Americans.
Now the work of American reporters, having been censored, is being smuggled across the border to reach Americans.
Looking through my Alien: Isolation screenshots and apparently every time I play the game I take this one.
December 22, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Looking through my Alien: Isolation screenshots and apparently every time I play the game I take this one.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
Worth noting, I guess, that inside of a year we've gone from administration officials taking selfies of themselves at CECOT and bragging about how it's hell on earth to now getting their horrible little media worms to kill stories about it
December 22, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Worth noting, I guess, that inside of a year we've gone from administration officials taking selfies of themselves at CECOT and bragging about how it's hell on earth to now getting their horrible little media worms to kill stories about it
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
Weird how The Free Press was able to publish all of these without comment from the Washigton University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
December 22, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Weird how The Free Press was able to publish all of these without comment from the Washigton University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Listen, it's not like this was a story about wokeness on college campuses. The foreign torture prison where the government is disappearing people is old news.
Bari Weiss, cont'd: "I held that story because it wasn't ready. The story presented very powerful testimony of abuse in CECOT, but that testimony has already been reported... The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment in this prison... we simply need to do more."
December 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Listen, it's not like this was a story about wokeness on college campuses. The foreign torture prison where the government is disappearing people is old news.
I got about halfway through Routine and somehow wound up on another Nightmare run of Alien: Isolation.
December 22, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I got about halfway through Routine and somehow wound up on another Nightmare run of Alien: Isolation.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
“It turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all.”
Perry: The return of the r-word
"These days, the r-word slur has become a staple of the American right wing, uttered with few professional or social consequences," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
December 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
“It turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all.”
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
CBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.
December 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
CBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.
Hang on, what if Bari's just incompetent and helped Trump by accident. What if she's been in the industry for decades but as a grifter, so genuinely doesn't know how it works. What if she had good intentions but just happened to help hide the crimes of the current government, which she supports.
December 22, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Hang on, what if Bari's just incompetent and helped Trump by accident. What if she's been in the industry for decades but as a grifter, so genuinely doesn't know how it works. What if she had good intentions but just happened to help hide the crimes of the current government, which she supports.
Incredible to destroy decades of credibility in like two weeks.
December 22, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Incredible to destroy decades of credibility in like two weeks.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
I’m sorry ezra but I could swear you told me the cruel folks were doing this the right way
KLEIN: “.. cruelty as the dominant culture repulses most people. .. Closed and cruel are on their way out. What comes next, I suspect, will present itself as open, friendly and assertively moral.”
@ezraklein.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/o...
@ezraklein.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/o...
December 22, 2025 at 1:31 AM
I’m sorry ezra but I could swear you told me the cruel folks were doing this the right way
I remember the days of journalism when you would be fired for printing lies.
December 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I remember the days of journalism when you would be fired for printing lies.
Dems too tbh, if there were consequences for the powerful a lot of things would be different.
If ANY Republican starting with Nixon had met with the business end of consequences for their actions in office, Trump wouldn't have happened.
I’ll say this for George W. Bush: he’s an unindicted war criminal who should spend the rest of his life in prison and if he and his co-conspirators had been made to face consequences, Trump never would have happened.
December 20, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Dems too tbh, if there were consequences for the powerful a lot of things would be different.
Reposted by Phil Hornshaw
If ANY Republican starting with Nixon had met with the business end of consequences for their actions in office, Trump wouldn't have happened.
I’ll say this for George W. Bush: he’s an unindicted war criminal who should spend the rest of his life in prison and if he and his co-conspirators had been made to face consequences, Trump never would have happened.
Yeah it’s nice to see someone from The Bush Institute speaking up for Ukraine.. might’ve been even better if it was almost 4 years ago.. but I guess we take this
December 20, 2025 at 8:35 PM
If ANY Republican starting with Nixon had met with the business end of consequences for their actions in office, Trump wouldn't have happened.