Matthew Phelan

Misc bylines @techreview, @mashable, @Slate, @newrepublic, @sciam, @Gawker (RIP), @insideclimate, etc. / NYU SHERP / RTs are not (per se) endorsements

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

I sorta loathe doing this—meaning an earnest thread on XDotCom—but there are some key updates/added context to my NYTs story about DOGE’s cuts over at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center: i.e. the office that’s helped NASA land safely on other planets since the Apollo era (1/26)

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

There’s a lot more that I could and probably will say here about the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, but (for starters) here’s some reporting on it that I did for The New York Times.

https://t.co/iJxKveY9Bk

[Namwali @namwalien]

Nope. "My Christian Dior" is already a volta after the first two lines; can't pre-empt it. And the unexpected rhyme is another volta--brings it home, just like the Knicks in the fourth quarter. That singsongy scheme of yours would ruin the whole effect.

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

God has listened to the Knicks fan nuns.

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

Camera crew must stop manipulating the public with all these shots of Spurs fan nuns. More Knicks fan nuns in NYC, Tri-state area, come on now.

[Hana 🧡 @HanaHoops]

My daughter going to be so mad when I name her Landry Shamet

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

@jwordfish Wasn’t it in 2013 😉, for JASH?

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

@jwordfish This is a little too close to home, but also very funny.

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

@jwordfish Jordan, you told me this tattoo I should get was a young Don Knotts. It’s Joseph Goebbels. What are you doing to me?

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

Shaq and Charles Barkley are arguing about what 22 year olds in the NBA typically act like.

[Gizmodo @Gizmodo]

Fusion Power’s Newest Problem Is People Secretly Making Nukes https://t.co/dEtCgXoHsf

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

Important read for Maine voters.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

It's kind of wild to find out that the Republican in the NYT story that says she had a toxic relationship with Graham Platner is Lyndsey Fifield. Having been in DC for too long, I know a decent number of people who know her quite well. For a long time she was the co-host of a podcast with her best friend Bethany Mandel, called Ladybrains, though she has also worked for multiple super PACs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Heritage Foundation.

Some background, presented without judgment: In 2014, Fifield began work as digital director for American Action Network, a Republican Super PAC that oversees House races. The next year she became social media manager for the Heritage Foundation, where she stayed for the next seven years.

In 2022, she joined the Super PAC backing Nikki Haley for president, switching to the official campaign side the next year, and staying until the campaign flamed out. She now lists herself as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a prominent dark money group that is best known for helping usher Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court and giving Susan Collins the talking points she needed to make her decisive speech in his favor.

The NYT breezed past all this, saying she was "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns."

In an interview for a news outlet called Red Alert Politics that named her to a “30 under 30” list back in 2016, she said that she wanted to “emulate the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s approach to online activism.” Breitbart, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to political combat, is perhaps best remembered for having exposed Anthony Weiner’s penchant for sending nudes to young girls, and for his work elevating James O’Keefe.

That she worked for Independent Women's Forum recently is even wilder since IWF played a critical role in Kavanaugh's confirmation and in persuading Collins to support it.

Heather Higgins, chair of IWF, laid out the group’s role in a talk several years ago. “We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House, Fox News, and elsewhere. Most important, Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she would not see how to support him,” Higgins said. “And if you look at the speech she gave on the Senate floor, it’s entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument — what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying. We’re watching TV and we’re like, ‘That’s ours! That’s ours!’”

Meanwhile, the timeline Fifield gives of their relationship is confusing, because during at least some of that time she was actually dating a different person, her longterm boyfriend who became her fiancee before she called off the wedding in 2018. We all know this because she and Mandel did a podcast episode on it that went mega-viral in Republican circles back then. Apparently this is the kind of thing the NYT thinks is important now, so I guess it requires more reporting. I'll report back.

Here is Heather Higgins celebrating IWF's role in getting Susan Collins to confirm Kavanaugh:

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

🧵 Some publishers and news organizations are blocking the Wayback Machine from archiving their journalism, cutting off access to the public record.

📣 If you rely on the Wayback Machine to preserve news & history, tell them not to block web archiving. ✏️ Sign the open letter to keep journalism preserved 👇
https://t.co/fUrdNz60RD

#SaveTheArchive #WaybackMachine #PressFreedom #DigitalPreservation @fightfortheftr

[Jordan Fish @jwordfish]

@VashKohime I want somebody to make the case for why a six-hour movie split into eight chunks without strong episodic structure is a good format. This is the underlying criticism that I feel is valid, that shorter seasons end up feeling overly serialized and underbaked as episodes.

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

It would be very funny if all of the staff at 60 Minutes pulled a Deadspin-to-Defector stunt.

[Matthew Phelan @CBMDP]

@dave_beaty Dave. Woah.

[Keith Edwards @keithedwards]

Holy shit. Maine reporter Andy O’Brien just implied that Susan Collins carried on a years-long affair with a man while his first wife was battling (and dying from) cancer

[Tanner F. Boyle, Getting Spooked @TannerFBoyle1]

For instance, read @Knibbs article on this bizarre controversy: https://t.co/OasygfnYke

[Elijah Wood @elijahwood]

For the first time yesterday, I experienced the new @alamodrafthouse QR code ordering system and I can tell you it’s truly awful. Rather than making ordering food and drink more efficient, it actually adds steps to the process AND if you want to order additional items during the film you HAVE to open your phone. No, your cute reference to that irony in your How To Alamo video doesn’t negate how ridiculous this is. Please don’t cut corners with your staff and revert back to physical menus and order cards.

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

fun fact: the NYT hasn't had a breaking news headline about a bombing in Gaza (~1000 killed by US/Israel since Oct 2025) or Lebanon (3,400+ killed by US/Israel since Oct 2025) since Oct 2025.

[jourdain searles @judysquirrels]

and she’s right, in a very broad sense

[Gizmodo @Gizmodo]

Australia Launches $1.4 Billion Suit Over 3M ‘Forever Chemicals’ Contamination at Bases https://t.co/EokYsdZtJv