'It feels less like advertising and more like brainwashing'

A close-up of a television remote showing various streaming options.

Streamers 'now demand, just like cable, that we pay for the honor of watching them'

(Image credit: Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

published 4 August 2025

'Ad-supported streaming is the future. So why is the experience so bad?'

Mary McNamara at the Los Angeles Times

We "need to stop getting mad about the fact that our favorite streaming series are now full of ads and focus on how awful those ads are," says Mary McNamara. It is "infuriating that streaming platforms sold a product they could not reasonably hope to sustain." Far "from freeing us from commercials, they now demand, just like cable, that we pay for the honor of watching them." It is "difficult not to instantly hate whatever is being advertised."

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Sometimes the "facts are so obvious that everyone has to accept them," says E.J. Dionne Jr. That's "what should be happening now with the truly remarkable decline in the number of murders and shootings across the United States, especially in big cities." Being "able to accept the latest good news is essential, but "we are a long way from a nonpartisan, nonideological debate on crime, and it won't happen until progressives are bold enough to make a case."

Donald Trump is "like a football coach who wants the referee fired because his team didn't score more touchdowns," says Tom Jones. There is "more to all of this than just a less-than-robust job report." This is "just the latest example of the president going after people, places and things that he doesn't like — the same people, places and things that are a backbone of democracy." It's "Trump who is acting like a child."

Republicans "routinely assert that veterans can easily find better and faster treatment outside the VHA," but "that's because they assume that we have enough hospitals, primary care providers, specialty physicians, and mental health therapists to care for the country's current patient load of 330 million nonveteran Americans, let alone nine million more veterans," says Suzanne Gordon. Analysis "reveals a system that cannot provide even basic medical and mental health services to nonveteran patients."

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Justin Klawans has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022. He began his career covering local news before joining Newsweek as a breaking news reporter, where he wrote about politics, national and global affairs, business, crime, sports, film, television and other news. Justin has also freelanced for outlets including Collider and United Press International.