Atlantic publishes Caitlyn Flanagan's love letter to Bari Weiss for some reason

Opening Arguments

Opening Arguments Media LLC

Opinion, News, Liberal, Politics, Law, Harvard, Atheist, Legal, Supremecourt

4.3 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s Vapid Response Wednesday, and Thomas, Lydia, and Matt are back to take apart more bad-faith nonsense from some of the worst people in public life. First up: The Atlantic's Caitlyn Flanagan on why it is totally fine that her good friend Bari Weiss is taking over one of the most prestigious news organizations in the United States after running a glorified blog which has been liberated from any reasonable idea of journalistic standards. MAGA law professor Johnathan Turley then completely fails to explain why capital-A “Antifa”--a set of tactics and ideas which he has previously acknowledged in writing is not actually a “group” and should not be treated as one--is actually a group which should be treated as one. Finally, Newsweek-ruiner Josh Hammer makes his second appearance on Vapid Response Wednesday as he responds to some weird nonsense from Candace Owens.

“Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss,” Caitlin Flanagan, The Atlantic (10/7/25)
“They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems,” Olivia Reingold and Tanya Lukyanova, The Free Press
“Antifa Denial: How a Violent Anti-Free Speech Group Became a Non-Entity in American Politics,” Jonathan Turley, JonathanTurley.org (10/13/2025)
“Declaring Antifa A Terrorist Organization Could Achieve Its Anti-Free Speech Agenda,” Jonathan Turley (6/4/2020)
“Are Antifa Members Domestic Terrorists? Background on Antifa and Federal Classification of Their Actions,” Congressional Research Service (6/9/2020)
“Antiracist Skinheads and the Birth of Anti-Racist Action: An Interview With Mic Crenshaw,” Kelly Hayes, OrganizingMyThoughts.org (4/8/2024)
“Josh Hammer Responds Directly to Candace Owens’s Attack on Him,” Youtube (10/10/2025)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to VAPID response. We're back. It's opening arguments.
0:15.2	The podcast and YouTube show. That helps you make sense of law in the news. I'm Thomas Smith.
0:37.5	I'm nobody, but that's Matt Cameron. He's a real life immigration attorney. How are you doing, Matt? I think you're somebody, Thomas. Not true. Wrong. You're losing credibility with the audience, please. Oh, no. I mean, compared to the people we're going to talk about today who aggressively just don't seem to want to understand anything. You're two of my favorite people who get things.
0:42.7	I will say, I think I'm qualified to run CBS News now, I guess.
0:43.7	No doubt.
0:51.2	If the qualifications are now such that Barry Weiss can do it, then, you know, like, I'm close.
0:53.9	Which I shouldn't be close.
0:55.4	I shouldn't be close to that qualification.
0:58.2	And of course, producer Lydia Smith, how you do? Hello, I got a break again.
0:59.8	You guys keep giving me like a week off every now and then, which is nice.
1:03.5	But happy to be back.
1:04.8	We temporarily turned into Jake Tapper, which is a thing that happens.
1:08.5	It's an evolution.
1:09.6	Yeah, like Teen Wolf movie or whatever when Michael J.
1:12.8	Fox turns into a wolf and like plays basketball and stuff. It's hilarious. Oh, yeah. Lydia has that, but with Jake Tapper. It's been something we've dealt with. It's very interesting. Yeah, it's something getting used to. You can come back anytime. Yeah. Okay.
1:25.6	Thanks.
1:26.4	No, so excited to be with you.
1:30.4	Ooh, and we're adding some features today. We're going to finally give our patrons at patreon.com. Who make the show happen at all. Give them the shoutouts they deserve again. Yes. So happy to be back with that. Yeah, getting organized. Excited to do that. Why don't you give us a little preview, folks, of what we're going to be covering before we take our first break, though? Well, sure. We've got two pieces by two different people, about two very different subjects. Theme here being people who just don't get it. So we got a piece about Barry Weiss taking over CBS and how that's just fine,
2:01.6	and she's going to do great. And then we've got another piece by the one and only Jonathan Turley,
2:06.5	a singular legal mind, and I don't say that as a compliment. Remind us who that is. Who's Jonathan
2:12.9	Charlie? What do you want to give it? The lone conservative legal commentary voice, basically the guy that Fox News will always bring on to sweep everything Trump does under the rug.
2:25.5	And Congress.
	...

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