Cancel Me, Daddy

The mainstream media failed to hold Alex Jones accountable for more than 30 years. A satire company is poised to do what journalism wouldn't.

Ben Collins knows why. As a former far-right extremism reporter inside mainstream media, he watched newsrooms normalize and platform Alex Jones' conspiracy theories in the name of "both sides" journalism. Now he's chief executive officer of The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron — the company poised to turn Infowars into the joke it's always been.

Infowars founder Alex Jones owes more than $1.4 billion to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting families after years of defamation and harassment. In 2024, a bankruptcy court thwarted The Onion's winning bid to buy Infowars and share proceeds with the Sandy Hook families.

Last month, The Onion reached a deal to license the Infowars website and its intellectual property for six months. Then Jones won an appeal to stop the process. But the appeal could be overturned at any moment, allowing The Onion to finally have the last laugh over Infowars.

This week, Katelyn and Christine discuss the evolving situation with Collins. Why did it take a satire company to defeat Infowars? His answer is a structural indictment of journalism itself.

Cancel Me, Daddy is a progressive media criticism show hosted by journalists Katelyn Burns and Christine Grimaldi. New episodes every other week.

Links:

- Grab a discounted bundle subcription to Katelyn’s and Christine’s newsletters at their TrustFnd collab!

- Elizabeth Williamson for The New York Times: Here’s what Jones has said about Sandy Hook.

- Benjamin Mullin and Elizabeth Williamson for The New York Times: The Onion Has a New Plan to Take Over Infowars

- Pablo Torre for Pablo Torre Finds Out: How The Onion Finally Shut Up Alex Jones for Good (ft. Ben Collins)

- Tovia Smith for NPR: The Onion's bid to take over Infowars moves to the Texas Supreme Court

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Tech billionaire Sam Altman positions his company’s artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, as humanity’s savior. But the human race can’t trust the OpenAI CEO, according to a recent New Yorker Sam Altman profile.

From his earliest days in the tech industry, Altman has toggled between exaggerations (at best) and lies (at worst) about AI’s world-changing potential. When his optimism turned apocalyptic, he argued that only he could be trusted with the technology. 

“Maybe this was a premeditated masterstroke. Maybe he was fumbling for an advantage. Either way, it worked,” the New Yorker reported.

This week, Spitfire News independent journalist Kat Tenbarge returns to the pod for a deep dive 

on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Katelyn, Christine, and Kat use The New Yorker Sam Altman profile as a springboard for a discussion on truthfulness and technology. As Altman lobbies against the safety measures he once supported—in name only, it seems—it’s time to question the narrative he’s built about himself and for us all.

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links for Apple:

- Grab a discounted bundle subscription to Katelyn’s and Christine’s newsletters at their TrustFnd collab!

- Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz for The New Yorker: Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?

- Oli Coleman for Page Six: Jeremy O. Harris drunkenly called OpenAI’s Sam Altman a Nazi at the Vanity Fair Oscar party

- Buy Karen Hao’s Empire of AI at The Flytrap Media Bookshop

- Eddy Burback for YouTube: ChatGPT made me delusional

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“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s trans persecution feeds off her vast fortune. Rowling uses her estimated $1.2 billion net worth to directly fund anti-trans causes.

As executive producer of the upcoming Harry Potter HBO show, Rowling will make even more money that she can funnel into what she calls “women's and girls' sex-based rights.” 

Early media criticism of the Harry Potter reboot is just starting to contend with Rowling’s commitment to erasing trans people from public life.

This week, Jessie Gender returns to the podcast to discuss HBO’s Harry Potter show with Katelyn and Christine. The three discuss the shortcomings of nostalgia with the HBO reboot and how media criticism must include J.K. Rowling’s trans obsession. It is not possible to separate this artist from her art.

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links for Apple:

- Subscribe to YouTube’s Jessie Gender and Jessie Gender After Dark

- Stream Jessie Gender’s Frak This Podcast - A Battlestar Galactica journey

- Katelyn Burns for MS NOW: A new trans character doesn’t fix ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ transphobia

- Charles Pulliam-Moore for The Verge: There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series

- Ryan Adamczeski for The Advocate: J.K. Rowling uses Harry Potter wealth to fund anti-transgender organization

- Samantha Riedel for Them: John Lithgow Says J.K. Rowling’s Trans Views Have Been “Twisted and Misrepresented”

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U.S. presidential administrations typically "hard launch" a war with congressional testimony, press conferences, and high-profile speeches designed to sell it to the American people. The Iran war is different. Nearly a month after the initial joint U.S.-Israel strikes, Trump's foreign policy amounts to leaving the public "on read." His motivations are nebulous, contradictory, and propped up by a media machine running on fumes. Some Republican congressional allies won't even call it a war.

No wonder support for the Iran war sits at an all-time low—46 percent—well below the clear majorities that backed past U.S. conflicts, including its closest parallel: the Iraq War. The Bush Iraq War had a full propaganda rollout, complete with weapons of mass destruction lies and the military industrial complex on overdrive. This? This is war propaganda on autopilot.

This week, Katelyn and Christine sit down with HuffPost Senior Politics Reporter Jen Bendery for a media criticism deep dive into how each war was sold—because how you package a lie matters. Their conversation traces the parallels between Trump Iran and Bush Iraq, emphasizes responsible media consumption, and pushes back on the media bias fueling disinformation in real time.

If you're here for progressive news that holds power accountable, this one's for you. Stream on YouTube—ring the bell! Listen on Apple or Spotify. And don't forget the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Follow Jen Bendery on Bluesky: @jbendery.bsky.social
• Subscribe to Christine’s newsletter, Vendetta
• Katelyn’s newsletter collaboration with Kat Tenbarge and Marisa Kabas 
• Cassie's GoFundMe
• Lily Boyce and Ruth Igielnik for The New York Times: Unlike Past U.S. Conflicts, Iran Attack Is Opposed by Most Americans
• Eric Garcia for The Independent: When is a war in Iran not a ‘war’? When it’s ‘our’ war
• Brandi Buchman for HuffPost: Military Commander Tells Troops Bombing Iran Is ‘Part Of God’s Divine Plan’
• Meg Kinnard and Farnoush Amiri for The Associated Press: Sen. Graham got a war with Iran. What will it cost the country and his party?
• Joel Roberts for CBS News: Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11
• ThinkProgress: One Month After 9/11, McCain Said Anthrax ‘May Have Come From Iraq,’ Warned Iraq Is ‘The Second Phase’
• George W. Bush’s January 2002 State of the Union address calling Iraq, Iran, and Norrth Korea the “axis of evil”
• Jack Mitchell for All Things Considered: 20 years ago, the U.S. warned of Iraq's alleged 'weapons of mass destruction'

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Pete Hegseth’s résumé maps the trajectory of a man who failed upward from Fox News host to Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense. As Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court hearings proved, sexual assault allegations are rarely a roadblock to a powerful job in the Trump administration. In fact, Donald Trump has consistently rewarded Hegseth for years of documented bad behavior—from financial mismanagement of veterans organizations to the relentless promotion of toxic masculinity.

Hegseth presents himself as the prototypical "man’s man," seemingly more invested in a pull-up challenge with a shirtless Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. than with abiding by the rules of war or the gravity of the Pentagon.

This week, Kill the Computer podcaster June Sternbach joins Katelyn and Christine to unpack Pete Hegseth’s pathetic masculinity complex. We dissect how mainstream media sanitized his record, and how rewarding his fragile masculinity both reflects and reinforces the darkest corners of U.S. political culture.

🔔 Stream full episodes on our YouTube channel—remember to subscribe and ring the bell so you never miss a media deep dive!

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Episode Links:

• Follow June Sternbach on Bluesky, @junlper.beer
• Nick Schwartz for USA Today: Fox News host hits man with an axe on live TV
• Gabriel Sherman for Vanity Fair: Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Pete Hegseth Said to Face Previous Sexual Misconduct Allegation
• Sharon LaFraniere and Julie Tate for The New York Times: Pete Hegseth’s Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years
• Jane Mayer for The New Yorker: Pete Hegseth’s Secret History
• Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube and Sarah Fitzpatrick for NBC News: Pete Hegseth's drinking worried colleagues at Fox News, sources tell NBC News
• Julie Tsirkin, Sarah Fitzpatrick and Courtney Kube for NBC News: Senators receive affidavit containing new allegations against Pete Hegseth, who denies the claims
• Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
• Calum Marsh for The New York Times: 100 Push-Ups and 50 Pull-Ups in Under 10 Minutes. What Could Go Wrong?
• Watch Pattie Gonia’s pull-up challenge
• Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima for The Washington Post: Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill Them All
• Graham Smith for Morning Edition: Pentagon shifts toward maintaining ties to Scouting
• Michael Liedtke and David Klepper for the Associated Press: What to know about the clash between the Pentagon and Anthropic over military’s AI use

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How deep does the media’s complicity go? In this episode of Cancel Me, Daddy, Katelyn Burns and Christine Grimaldi unpack the disturbing connection between the "Shitty Media Men" list, the MeToo movement, and the recently released Epstein files.

While the world focuses on the spectacle, we dig into the systems that allowed abuse to thrive. We explore how names on the infamous 2017 "Shitty Media Men" spreadsheet—originally created to warn women about harassment and assault—surfaced years later in the Department of Justice's redacted Epstein list.

In this episode we cover:

-Why the Epstein survivors still haven't found justice

-Lyz's own harrowing story of sexual harassment from a man who ended up in the Epstein files

-What happens to women who become known for being victims of the men who they speak up against

Featuring Guest: Lyz Lenz, author and host of the “Dingus of the Week” newsletter, joins us to discuss the bleak reality of seeking justice and why we need to stop asking "why didn't they speak up?" and start asking "why didn't we listen?"

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About Cancel Me, Daddy: What isn’t the media telling you about politics, power, and marginalized people? Cancel Me, Daddy is a progressive media criticism show digging into how newsrooms, pundits, and platforms shape what we think is normal. We unpack the stories mainstream outlets ignore or sanitize, then talk about what that means for real people.

#EpsteinFiles #MeToo #MediaCriticism #LyzLenz #CancelMeDaddy #ShittyMediaMen

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It is Cancel Me, Daddy’s fifth anniversary! This week, former co-host Oliver joins Katelyn and Christine to discuss all the panic around cancel culture. Oliver and Katelyn pinpoint how they defined cancellation when the podcast started in 2021 and what has and hasn’t changed about it over the past five years.

Some of the very same “cancellation grifters”—Bari Weiss, Dave Chappelle, and J.K. Rowling—from the show’s earlier days are still profiting from their so-called cancellation[s]. They’ve evolved into what Katelyn and Christine call “media villains,” which exist within the show’s increasingly focused media and politics lens. Oliver, Katelyn, and Christine scrutinize the cancellation-to-grift pipeline with the show’s trademark wit. Come celebrate five years of thoughtful analysis and verbal shitposting! Thank you, listeners, for five years of support!

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Listen to our Dave Chapelle episodes: Cancel Me, Daddy Classics: Shame on Chappelle and Netflix Part 2
• Catch up on Bari Weiss (again) and the rest of the Harper’s Letter crew: They Screamed “Cancel Culture” — Then Went Silent While Trump Gutted Free Speech (ft. Parker Molloy)
• Tune into J.K. Rowling’s cancellation: Canncel-o Wizard Game-o (ft. Ana Valens)
• 
  

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You can’t log onto social media or otherwise tune into the news without witnessing extremely disturbing images of masked federal agents assaulting and arresting people in Minneapolis. We’re talking bystanders, legal observers, passerbys, immigrants, citizens—everyone in ICE’s wake.

This week, Katelyn and Christine welcome New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie to the pod. Jamelle’s work centers on history and racial politics. From the George Floyd uprisings to today’s violent campaign against undocumented immigrants and anyone who happens to get caught up in an assault or arrest, he brings moral clarity into focus. Katelyn, Christine, and Jamelle discuss how 19th century slave patrols became modern-day policing and the military-industrial complex led to the militarization of modern-day police—with the intent of suppressing free speech. It’s time to cancel—and abolish—ICE.

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Follow Jamelle Bouie on Bluesky: @jamellebouie.net + TikTok: @jamellebouie + Instagram: @jbouie
• Subscribe to Jamelle’s YouTube channel, Takes™
• Listen to Jamelle’s podcast, Unclear and Present Danger
• Katelyn Burns for Xtra: Renee Nicole Good’s queerness isn’t an aside—it’s a key part of her story
• Laura Jedeed for Slate: The Trump Administration Is Calling My Viral Story a Lie. Good Thing I Kept the Receipts.
• Nick Miroff for The Atlantic: ICE’s ‘Athletically Allergic’ Recruits
• Jeremy Barr for The Guardian: CBS News report on ICE officer’s injuries drew ‘huge internal concern’
• Rishika Dugyala for Politico: NYT opinion editor resigns after outrage over Tom Cotton op-ed
• Jamelle Bouie for Takes™: Donald Trump Wants to Cancel the Midterm Elections

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Was the Harper’s “free speech” letter really about defending open debate—or about protecting powerful media elites from criticism and consequences? In this episode, we expose how the Harper’s letter, its transphobic signers, and the larger “cancel culture” panic helped shield figures like J.K. Rowling and Bari Weiss while the real threats to free speech exploded under Trump.

More than 150 journalists, authors, and academics signed the infamous “Harper’s letter” in 2020. Published in Harper’s Magazine amid the George Floyd racial justice protests, the letter argued that the more serious threat to the nation was “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty”—aka “cancel culture.” At the time, trans people were some of the letter’s biggest critics, highlighting its bigoted dog whistles. The letter’s signatories include a who’s who of transphobia, from Bari Weiss to J.K. Rowling.

This week, writer Parker Molloy joins Katelyn and Christine to discuss how this so-called free speech crisis transformed how elite media covers—and protects—itself, from 2020 to today.

Tell us your out of context cancellation in the comments and we'll read the best ones on our next episode Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Leave us a voicemail with your out of context cancellation at https://www.memo.fm/cancelmedaddy

Links:

Follow Parker Molloy on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/parkermolloy.com

Subscribe to Parker Molloy’s newsletter, The Present Age: https://www.readtpa.com/

David Klion for The Nation: They All Signed the Harper’s Letter. Where Are They Now?, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/harpers-letter-free-speech-trump/

The Objective: A More Specific Letter on Justice and Open Debate, https://objectivejournalism.org/2020/07/a-more-specific-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/

Emily St. James

Zach Beauchamp for Vox: The “free speech debate” isn’t really about free speech, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/22/21325942/free-speech-harpers-letter-bari-weiss-andrew-sullivan

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Think cancel culture is new? The Catholic Church invented it in the Middle Ages.

Being burned at the stake was the ultimate deplatforming. In the 15th and 16th centuries, figures like Joan of Arc, Giordano Bruno, and Jan Hus faced the stake for the crime of heresy. But was heresy actually just a way to crush dissent?

This week, medievalist and historian Eleanor Janega (@GoingMedieval) joins Katelyn and Christine to unpack history’s original cancel culture. From the Vatican's "Community Guidelines" to the trial of Galileo, we look at how institutions have always used moral panic to maintain power.

Scheduling Note: Cancel Me, Daddy will return in January 2026. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! Thank you for tuning in—we appreciate you so much. 

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links for Apple:

• Subscribe to the Gone Medieval podcast via History Hit, Apple, or Spotify  
• Follow Eleanor Janega on Bluesky: @goingmedieval
• Buy Eleanor’s book, The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society, via The Flytrap Media’s Bookshop.org storefront 

Cancellation List Patreon Supporters:

Megg, I Beuregard, Alison, Siobhan Green, Maggi Joseph, Leslie Zavisca, Summer Lark, Amy Veeres, Matt

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