One for You, One for Me: After New York Times public editor Liz Spayd wrote a column pushing back against widespread critiques of the paper’s apparent “false balance” in election coverage, media onlookers found themselves puzzled by her stance. Justin Peters wonders whether the ideal of objectivity, which Spayd advocates, is an impossible, confusing dream. And Jacob Weisberg and Michelle Goldberg talked, somewhat bemusedly, about Spayd’s column on our Trumpcast podcast; we have a partial transcript of their conversation here.
The Triumph of the Formerly Mocked: Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protest is working, Josh Levin writes. It’s spreading among athletes and sparking conversation in exactly the way the 49ers quarterback had hoped it would. Will those who called him uneducated, privileged, and washed up recognize they were wrong? (Probably not.)
Twenty Years: In our 20 Years of Slate anniversary package today: Dana Stevens on the far-reaching influence of Nicole Holofcener’s 1996 movie Walking and Talking. And, behind the Slate Plus paywall (remember, you can rip it down at a discount right now), Jessica Winter writes about the week Princess Diana died, when Slate was on vacation. (All of Slate! How darling.)
#SlatePitch of the Day: We don’t pay kidney donors, mostly because we don’t want to encourage an unsavory black market in organs. We should consider changing that policy, writes Sally Satel, who has been the recipient of not one but two altruistically donated kidneys—and knows that she got lucky.
For fun: A board game that teaches girls about periods.
Not a bad idea,
Rebecca
