The Week Evening Review
Manufactured 'chaos' at the border, a changing restaurant landscape, and more

 
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION

The media landscape is ever-changing, most recently in the sense that numerous newsrooms have significantly shrunk. Perhaps no company had it as bad, though, as the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper announced this week it was laying off more than 20% of its total newsroom, just months after laying off another 13%, citing monetary concerns.

Numerous financial issues have plagued the paper, and many have also blamed poor direction from the Times' billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong. But is the culling of the LA Times a problem caused by mismanagement, or is it representative of a problem in the media industry that will continue?

What did the commentators say?
These layoffs are "particularly brutal," but we've seen this story before, media correspondent David Folkenflik told NPR. He noted that The Washington Post — owned by another billionaire, Jeff Bezos — also made recent cuts. This "tells you that simply having passels of money" doesn't automatically make an outlet "financially viable."

Owners were trying to make ad money when they should have been securing paying subscribers, Folkenflik said. This "really undermined legacy media, particularly print publishers."

The Times "was really only hanging on due to the 'fickle billionaire patronage' model, so these events are not exactly surprising," Jack Crosbie wrote for the Discourse Blog Substack. While some institutions may survive, "the idea of an organized institution where a group of journalists all collaboratively publish under one masthead" is disappearing.

The issues may also stem from an "ominous trend: An increasingly large percentage of Americans have come to prefer ultra-biased, sensationalist media outlets to impartial, informative newspapers," Gary Dolgin wrote in the Times.

What next?
There might be a saving grace on the horizon. A proposed bill in California would tax large companies like Google and Facebook on news advertising, driving salaries for newsroom employees. 

While it may be an uphill battle, this type of legislation has worked overseas. A 2021 law in Australia made Google and Facebook negotiate contracts with media outlets. A government report a year later deemed the law a success, finding that it had "enabled news businesses to employ additional journalists and make other valuable investments," per Reuters.

 
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TALKING POINT

The national debate over border security has recently centered along a stretch of the Rio Grande that separates Eagle Pass, Texas, from neighboring Piedras Negras, Mexico. It's there that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has installed razor wire as part of his hardline "Operation Lone Star" effort to block undocumented immigrants. The initiative, described as "inhumane" by one Texas state trooper, has drawn condemnation over human rights concerns, but also for using local law enforcement and military deployments for operations broadly understood to be under federal jurisdiction. 

This week, the Supreme Court affirmed this jurisdictional control, ruling that Border Patrol agents could remove state-installed concertina wire to access the border and render services to migrants in need of medical attention and federal processing. Abbott not only vowed to fight the ruling, but claimed his authority "supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary." Has he crossed a line?  

'Create chaos' 
Abbott's defiance "could be the beginning of a constitutional crisis," Houston Public Media reported. Additional provocations from other right-wing lawmakers "illustrates the larger stakes" of a situation in which "our constitutional democracy is threatened" by selective adherence to judicial rulings, The San Antonio Express-News editorial board wrote. Moreover, encouragement from officials like Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) — who wrote on X that "the feds are staging a civil war" — is "reckless and incendiary" and either ignorant or coming from people who are "trying to speak it into being."

The governor is politicizing the Texas National Guard to "obstruct and create chaos at the border," Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) claimed, before encouraging President Joe Biden to "establish sole federal control" of the military force "now."

'Quite unprecedented'
Texas Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer is following the governor's lead, telling his agency that "troops will repair any obstacles destroyed by federal agents" and "won't allow the feds to set up migrant processing centers in areas they’ve blocked," The Texas Tribune reported.

The standoff is "quite unprecedented" UT-Austin law professor Stephen Vladeck told Politifact. Given the SCOTUS ruling merely allowed federal officials to remove razor wire, Abbott can't directly defy it, Vladeck said. Instead, the "invasion" rhetoric is "posturing with an eye toward future judicial rulings; not a thumb in the eye of this one."

 
 

Poll watch

Just over half (51%) of the participants in Tuesday’s New Hampshire Republican primary believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020, according to exit polling conducted on 2,192 voters by Edison Research. That’s down from two-thirds of Iowa caucus participants, the firm found.

 
 
Picture of the day

A gentoo penguin chick and an egg about to hatch at Paradise Bay in the Gerlache Strait Juan Barreto / Getty Images

 
 

Good day 🦏

… for northern white rhinos. A rhinoceros was successfully impregnated through embryo transfer by conservationists in Kenya — the first successful use of the method they hope will help save the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies. The next step is to transfer the embryos, calling the step a "cornerstone" in the mission to save the species.

 
 

Bad day 🍔

… for In-N-Out Burger. The fast-food chain plans to close its first location in its 75-year history due to an excessive wave of car break-ins, robberies and property damage at its only restaurant in Oakland, California. The "frequency and severity of the crimes" left the company with "no alternative,” said In-N-Out’s CEO.

 
 
Puzzles

Test your general knowledge with The Week's daily crossword, part of our puzzles section, which also includes sudoku and codewords.

 
 
THE EXPLAINER

It has been nigh three years since the Covid-19 pandemic first rolled through the U.S. Dining, as Americans knew it, changed overnight. Restaurants shuttered. Takeout usage spiked. Delivery app use skyrocketed. When restaurants reopened, menu QR codes became fixtures. Then dining shifted yet again as the pandemic waned. Nothing quite returned to pre-pandemic business as usual. Instead, some of the changes from that era of just a few years ago are now fixtures of the hospitality world. 

The personal impersonal
Perhaps not surprisingly, customers remain keen on takeout and delivery. But sorry, DoorDash and Uber Eats, third-party applications devoted to delivery services are not on the menu. "What we're seeing more is that consumers are really preferring to order through the restaurants' app or websites," said Jean Chick, a principal and U.S. restaurant and food service leader at Deloitte, on Marketplace Morning Report. 

Ding-dong, the fast-food dining room is (maybe) dead
Drive-thru traffic increased, predictably, during the pandemic. It now accounts for two-thirds of all fast-food revenue. With that uptick comes the slow hemorrhaging of the quick-service dining room. "There's a dichotomy in what consumers want. They want value and convenience but also crave an experience," said David Henkes, a senior analyst at market research firm Technomic, in The Washington Post. 

The tip of the iceberg
During the pandemic, many customers tipped heavily knowing that service workers were struggling. Then as the country crept toward normalcy post-pandemic, diners have expected tipping to do the same. "Now customers want their service to go back to normal, along with their tipping obligations," Boston University reported. Additionally, economic justice for hospitality workers, a group that studies have shown is overworked and underpaid, remains a hot topic. 

 
 

Statistic of the day

$3 trillion: The valuation that Microsoft recently crossed, cementing its status as the second most valuable company in the world behind Apple. Both of the tech companies have been competing for the top spot, and Microsoft briefly overtook Apple earlier this year. Microsoft’s shares also hit a record high of $404.72.

Reuters

 
 
INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'Everyone has lost their minds over Barbie's "snubs"'
Imogen West-Knights in Slate
The complaints — from Ryan Gosling and "Hillary Clinton herself" — that the Oscars snubbed "Barbie" are a bit "silly," writes Imogen West-Knights in Slate. Greta Gerwig didn't get a nod for Best Director, but she did get nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. And Margot Robbie isn't up for Best Actress (five other women are), but she's in the running, as a producer, for Best Picture. In all, the film got eight nominations. That's hardly "an affront to feminism." 

'Haley revealed Trump's weaknesses'
The Wall Street Journal editorial board
Donald Trump wanted to bury Nikki Haley's presidential bid in New Hampshire, says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. But the former president's "11-point victory was less than most recent polls showed." In fact, "Haley's strength with independent voters revealed a howling weakness" for Trump if he wins the GOP nomination. He has the party's base firmly behind him, "but his appeal across the electorate remains as limited" as it was when he lost in 2020.

'Black Americans cannot wait hundreds of years for the wealth gap to close'
Willie Wilson in the Chicago Tribune
Of all the injustices in our society, "the wealth gap is the most pernicious," writes Willie Wilson in the Chicago Tribune. A report last year found that Black people had 58 cents for every dollar of white family income in 1967. By 2021, the figure had only risen to 62 cents. At that rate, it will take 513 years to "reach income parity." It's "insanity to believe" we can close the gap "without significant government investment."

 
 
WORD OF THE DAY

Kenough

After the Oscars snubbed "Barbie" star Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig, Hillary Clinton chimed in to remind them they are "both so much more than Kenough."

 
 
The Week recommends

If you're looking for the light, go toward a Dark Sky Place. Away from the artificial-light pollution that plagues big cities and suburbs, these areas offer the right conditions for clear stargazing, astrophotography, moonlight walking tours and other dark-sky activities. These are two especially starry United States-based dark-sky destinations. 

Big Bend National Park, Texas
It's easy to get lost in the cosmos at Big Bend National Park. Because the park is situated deep in Texas, away from large cities and towns, the skies above Big Bend are some of the darkest in the lower 48 states. If you're camping here, you can stargaze on your own (bring binoculars, a telescope and lawn chairs) or take part in one of the free night-sky programs offered by the park. These are led by rangers and volunteers and include guided hikes during a full moon and telescope viewing. Keep an eye out for animals that avoid the day's heat by appearing at night, and use the stars and moon for navigation.

Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area, Nebraska
The Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area fully embraces its designation as a dark-sky destination. Every year, novice and seasoned astronomers come to the park for a Star Party that's out of this world. It's educational and entertaining, with special activities for kids so they can learn about celestial mechanics and make their own spectroscopes and telescopes. For 2024, the Nebraska Star Party, now in its 31st year, is set for July 28 through Aug. 2.

 
 

In the morning

Read tomorrow's Morning Report to learn why we may have been wrong about SAT testing all along, remember Kobe Bryant on the anniversary of his tragic death, and lighten up your morning by reading a tidbit of good news from around the world. 

Thanks for reading,
Summer