Opener Zak Crawley suggested he was not aware of comments made by Ben Stokes when the England captain said his dressing room is “not a place for weak men”.
Stokes made the statement in multiple interviews following England’s defeat in the second Ashes Test against Australia earlier this month.
In the run-up to the third Test, in which England are set to be beaten to lose the series at the earliest opportunity, Stokes said he had let his message “drift around” his players.
“I’ve done all the talking over the past two days that I needed to have done,” said the all-rounder.
But after Crawley made 85 on the fourth day of the third Test in Adelaide, he said: “I didn’t see that.
“I didn’t see and wasn’t really looking out for it. We take everything that is said in the media with a pinch of salt.”
Stokes made the “weak men” comment after England were beaten in Brisbane to go 2-0 down.
The England squad subsequently went on holiday to Noosa between the second and third Tests.
Before this match in Adelaide, Stokes said his team had held “raw” conversations. The captain also asked his players to “show a bit of dog” in their battle to remain in the series.
But Kent’s Crawley stated the messaging from Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum had remained consistent with their previous three years in charge.
“It’s been very positive, the same as always,” said Crawley. “[It’s] just trying to be optimistic, play our way, with lots of freedom. It felt like we could do something special going into this game.”
A different type of British invasion had EDM fans in a trance at the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Armed with turntables, social media-star-turned-professional-party-starter Fish56Octagon made his U.S. festival debut Nov. 21 and 22 at Insomniac’s Dreamstate SoCal, where he performed alongside some of the world’s most preeminent electronic artists, including Tiësto, Paul Oakenfold, Gareth Emery, Ferry Corsten and Chicane.
Fish, as he’s called, is a 46-year-old from the London suburbs who joined TikTok on a drunken whim after being introduced to the app by friends in 2021. Now boasting over a million followers across platforms, he’s seen his life flip because of that choice — quitting a full-time marketing career to become a DJ, produce music and play sets at some of the world’s biggest music festivals in the four years since he uploaded his first video.
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Though his initial post was about his watch collection, the self-described “petrol head” quickly went deep into creating content about cars and made a successful side hustle within a couple years. Crossover between auto enthusiasts and the music lovers in his audience meant the dance songs he used to soundtrack his car videos and sporadic vinyl-haul unboxings spawned passionate discussion in the comments about the classic rave songs Fish was sharing with the world.
He also benefited from an accidental, scroll-stopping visual hook repeated across videos born from his employer asking him to ensure it didn’t look like he was posting during business hours: middle-aged, thin and bald, dropping dad moves in front of his sprawling Technics decks and pumping his fists to the beat between bites of Weetabix biscuits, all while wearing a red and black dressing gown (what Americans would call a robe), gifted to Fish’s wife by his mother.
Screen shot of Fish DJing on TikTok in his bathrobe
(TikTok)
“That gown is elegant,” wrote a fan in the comments.
“It was legit my mum’s but she found it too hot,” Fish responded.
“You the same build as your mum” another person wrote back, punctuating the comment with a sweating smiley face emoji.
Fish also began to livestream on TikTok late into the night, playing his own mixes for the first time in 20 years.
“I remember seeing people commenting on the Live going, ‘Mate, we were watching you before we went out. We’ve just gone on a whole night out in our city, come back and you’re still here playing,’” Fish said. “I just love it. Sharing and being able to get out those obscure records. Sometimes it’s the big anthems everyone knows and sometimes it’s a tune that was an anthem to me.”
He’s had a decades-long education in electronic music. Fish was introduced to the genre on the cusp of his teen years through an episode of the British detective show “Inspector Morse.” One episode took place in the illegal rave scene and he thought it looked like fun to party in an old warehouse.
Fish’s taste quickly developed by listening to pirate radio and vinyl. He pieced together his first setup with two hi-fi record players his dad had in the attic. Only one had pitch control. He learned to beatmatch by plugging a player into each side of his amplifier and using the balance knob to fade between them. He was given Soundlab DLP-1 belt-driven turntables for his birthday and his obsession accelerated over the next several years.
Fish56Octagon performing at the Dreamstate music festival in Long Beach.
(Niyaz Pirani)
“By then I was just spending every penny that I had on vinyl building my record collection up. It was all rave music, early old school, hardcore jungle, and then happy hardcore, drum and bass around that sort of time, early to mid-’90s,” he said. “I played quite a few house parties.”
He became a de-facto resident DJ in college, spinning vinyl in the student union, and dabbled in music production at the same time. He eventually sold his analog kit and synthesizers when he switched to Ableton. He downsized his record collection as he converted them to MP3s.
The demands of his post-college marketing career meant the DJ dream disappeared for many years. That was until his TikTok Live sets gave him a second chance as club promoters reached out in the hope of booking him. Fish admits a lack of confidence caused him to stay on the sidelines. It was an offer in February 2024 to play a solo show at Hidden in Manchester — about the same time he switched his channel over entirely to music — that got him out of his house and onto a stage.
“Even if I wasn’t sure that people would come, I knew that anyone that did come would be coming to see me,” he said. “ … I ended up putting a night on where I played for five hours straight, just me from the start to the end. When the tickets went on sale, it sold out a good couple of months before the event.”
Fish wondered if it was a one-off event or the beginning of a life-changing run. Then the offers came in from other big U.K. cities — FishTales in Newcastle; acid techno at Beaverworks in Leeds; raves in Liverpool and Birmingham. He hired an agent. Dropped some merch.
“Not sure how this happened! But I’m here for it and hope you are too,” he wrote online.
A 20-date summer tour featured three different sets at the famed Glastonbury Festival, and appearances at Reading and Creamfields. He also traveled to Ireland, Scotland and Malta, marking his first time playing professionally outside of England.
He quit his day job in August 2024 to DJ and focus on music production full time with the support of his wife, children and parents.
“They support me even though it comes at a cost that I can’t always spend as much time with them, but they understand that I’m following my dream, following my passion, and doing something positive,” he said.
He’s gained an appreciation as a historian of the genre. Fish’s followers have grown to include Skrillex, David Guetta, Disclosure, Bicep and more of the artists he has admired and now counts among his peers.
“For about the first year, I often would wake up in the morning — I’m gonna get a little bit emotional just talking about this — but I’d wake up in the morning and just think, ‘Wow, that was all a dream, wasn’t it?” he said. “Then I look at my phone. I can see that actually it was real.”
Fish attributes his success to social media, though he said it’s a mistake to think just having social media followers guarantees bookings and the upward trajectory of one’s career.
“They’re actually a function of each other. It’s because I was making content that proved to be popular about music that I managed to build up a following and have those opportunities come my way,” he said. “I’ve now played, getting on for, 200 professional gigs at various clubs, festivals, events, raves, all around the world.”
Fish waited until November 2025 to make his first trek to North America with an 11-date run featuring his first U.S. festival booking. He chose Dreamstate because he’s always had a special place in his heart for trance and the emotional connection people have with the music.
“I love all dance music, but trance is the one that can kind of tug at your heartstrings a bit with those melodies, and the chord progression, and the way that the beats can be so crisp when they come in, and the way the bass hits,” he said.
Fish performed Friday night on “The Vision.” It’s the same stage played by legends Chicane and Paul Oakenfold this year and Darude last. He also co-headlined an hour-long B2B with Night 1 Dreamstate headliner Gareth Emery early Sunday morning, as the top-billed act for the festival’s afterparty in the Grand Salon of the iconic Queen Mary.
He made his way to LAX after stepping off stage at 3 a.m. to fly to New York and play the last three hours of a 24-hour rave.
Chicane and Fish56Octagon run into each other in the lobby of the Long Beach Hilton after playing the same stage Night 1 of Dreamstate.
(Niyaz Pirani)
Fish has tour dates in New Zealand and Australia toward the end of the year, plus the largest show of his career March 28 at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. He’s also releasing music for himself and others under his record label Octagon Discs.
As his audience multiplies, Fish’s earliest followers remain enthralled by his seemingly infinite rise.
“How did the dude who recommends second-hand cars get to this. So happy for you dude,” one fan wrote in the comments of his Dreamstate recap video post.
“Music was my number 1 passion but i thought I was too old. Thanks for the support bro,” Fish replied.
“Amazing,” another chimed in. “But I would not recognize u in the wild without the bathrobe.”
U.S. senators peppered Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr with questions during a wide-ranging hearing exploring media censorship, the FCC’s oversight and Carr’s alleged intimidation tactics during the firestorm over ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s comments earlier this fall.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee following the furor over ABC’s brief suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” amid social media backlash over Kimmel’s remarks in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.
Walt Disney Co. leaders yanked Kimmel off the air Sept. 17, hours after Carr suggested that Disney-owned ABC should punish the late-night comedian for his remarks — or face FCC scrutiny. Soon, two major TV station groups announced that they were pulling Kimmel’s show, although both reinstated the program several days after ABC resumed production.
Progressives were riled by the President Trump-appointed chairman’s seeming willingness to go after broadcasters in an alleged violation of their First Amendment rights. At the time, a few fellow Republicans, including Cruz, blasted Carr for suggesting to ABC: “We can do this the easy way or hard way.”
Cruz, in September, said that Carr’s comments belonged in the mob movie “Goodfellas.”
On Wednesday, Carr said his comments about Kimmel were not intended as threats against Disney or the two ABC-affiliated station groups that preempted Kimmel’s show.
The chairman argued the FCC had statutory authority to make sure that TV stations acted in the public interest, although Carr did not clarify how one jumbled sentence in Kimmel’s Sept. 15 monologue violated the broadcasters’ obligation to serve its communities.
Cruz was conciliatory Wednesday, praising Carr’s work in his first year as FCC chairman. However, Democrats on the panel attempted to pivot much of the three-hour session into a public airing of the Trump administration’s desire to punish broadcasters whom the president doesn’t like — and Carr’s seeming willingness to go along.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing.
(Associated Press)
Carr was challenged by numerous Democrats who suggested he was demonstrating fealty to the president rather than running the FCC as an independent licensing body.
Despite the landmark Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC, the agency isn’t exactly independent, Carr and fellow Republican Commissioner Olivia Trusty testified.
The two Republicans said because Trump has the power to hire and fire commissioners, the FCC was more akin to other agencies within the federal government.
“Then is President Trump your boss?” asked Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). The senator then asked Carr whether he remembered his oath of office. Federal officials, including Carr, have sworn to protect the Constitution.
“The American people are your boss,” Kim said. “Have you ever had a conversation with the president or senior administration officials about using the FCC to go after critics?”
Carr declined to answer.
Protesters flocked to Hollywood to protest the preemption of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after ABC briefly pulled the late-night host off air indefinitely over comments he made about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The lone Democrat on the FCC, Anna M. Gomez, was frequently at odds with her fellow commissioners, including during an exploration of whether she felt the FCC was doing Trump’s bidding in its approach to merger approvals.
Trump separately continued his rant on media organizations he doesn’t like, writing in a Truth Social post that NBC News “should be ashamed of themselves in allowing garbage ‘interviews’” of his political rivals, in this case Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).
Trump wrote that NBC and other broadcasters should pay “significant amounts of money for using the very valuable” public airwaves.
“Without a doubt, the FCC is leveraging its authority over mergers and enforcement proceedings in order to influence content,” Gomez said.
Parts of the hearing devolved into partisan bickering over whether Democrats or Republicans had a worse track record of trampling on the 1st Amendment. Cruz and other Republicans referenced a 2018 letter, signed by three Democrats on the committee, which asked the FCC to investigate conservative TV station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group.
“Suddenly Democrats have discovered the 1st Amendment,” Cruz said. “Maybe remember it when Democrats are in power. The 1st Amendment is not a one-way license for one team to abuse the power.
“We should respect the free speech of all Americans, regardless of party,” Cruz said.
Andy Dick says he is “110 percent” fine after video of him slumped over unresponsive on some steps from an apparent overdose in Hollywood circulated this week.
The comedian and convicted sex offender has been updating numerous outlets about the incident, telling the New York Post on Friday that he believes fentanyl is to blame for his medical emergency. This follows his Wednesday interview with TMZ in which he mentioned he doesn’t “mind doing a little crack [cocaine] every now and then.”
“It has to be [fentanyl],” Dick said to the Post, explaining that paramedics told his friends that the synthetic opioid was the likely cause. “That’s the only thing that can kill you that quickly, like I just dropped.”
Dick recounted to both outlets how he was out with friends Tuesday when he saw a stranger waving him over. He then “snuck away” briefly and did some drugs.
“There was a guy that was my age and I felt for him,” Dick said to TMZ. “He was depressed and he was on the sidewalk … and then he whipped out [what looked like] crack. And I’m like, you know what, I might need a little bit of that.”
He told the Post that he then “just dropped,” but declined to elaborate any further.
According to Shawn Harrell, who came across the scene as friends were trying to revive the unresponsive comedian and was present when first responders arrived, Dick was in pretty bad shape Tuesday.
“He was blue. His hands [were] blue and his face was blue,” Harrell told People. “His body was limp. It was like deadweight. … I thought he passed away.”
But after being administered some Narcan, the brand name of a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, Dick reportedly was able to leave the area with a friend and was not transported to a hospital.
“It was a group effort,” one of Dick’s friends said to TMZ.
According to the Post, Dick’s comments about crack were meant to be a joke.
“I jokingly said ‘a little crack every now and then [is] not gonna kill anybody,’ but it killed me,” Dick said. “It killed me. I died, you know, my lips turned purple.”
Timothee Chalamet has addressed rumours he is Brit rapper EsDeeKid for the first timeCredit: Radio 1Fans have speculated the Hollywood star is the masked rapper from LiverpoolCredit: Instagram/esdeekidGreg James grilled him on BBC Radio OneCredit: Radio 1
EsDeeKid has never revealed his identity or anything connected to his personal life and keeps his face covered by masks at all time.
However, social media became awash with theories that the rap star was actually New Yorker Timothee thanks to a series of coincidences.
Now, the Wonka star has addressed the rumours for the first time in an interview on BBCRadio One with Greg James ahead of the release of his next movie, Marty Supreme.
Greg simply started by saying the name EsDeeKid to Timothee to which he quickly said: “No comment.”
The actor then coyly added with a smirk upon his face: “All will be revealed in due time.”
Greg then went on to explain the theory and showed Timothee images of EsDeeKid in which his piercing blue eyes, which bear a striking resemblance to the Dune actor’s, could be seen through gaps in his masks.
The radio host asked Timothee if he agreed that they were “beautiful eyes”, with the actor simply replying: “Yes.”
Greg then asked once again if the star was him leaving Timothee to repeat: “All… will be revealed in due time.”
Little is known about EsDeeKid but he began to emerge in 2023 and achieved recognition for his 2024 song Bally.
He previously revealed he still lived in the council house he grew up in.
His debut album, Rebel, released this June has become one of the most popular hip-hop albums of the year after reaching the top ten in the UK as well as charting in America and Australia.
Speculation that Timothee is behind the mask gained traction online last month.
“Their eyes are extremely similar, I haven’t seen anything like it,” wrote one user on Reddit earlier this month.
While another user was convinced they have the same hands: “Guys i did a huge analysis looking at pics of Timothy’s hands VS Esdee kids hands. Same exact hands. Same vein placement and everything. I should make a video about it because it’s literally proof.”
Their similar fashion sense has also been used as a way of comparison between the two.
Timothee is currently in the UK ahead of the release of his new movie, Marty Supreme.
He was seen getting cosy with girlfriend Kylie Jenner at the launch of the film earlier this week where they coordinated in matching orange Chrome Hearts outfits.
The couple have been dating for almost three years having first been linked in April 2023 but have often kept their romance private and under wraps.
Timothee remained coy on the radio showCredit: Radio 1He is currently loved-up with Kylie JennerCredit: Getty
President Trump admitted Tuesday that he used the slur “shithole countries” to disparage Haiti and African nations during a 2018 meeting with lawmakers, bragging about a comment that sparked global outrage during his first term.
Back then, Trump had denied making the contemptuous statement during a closed-door meeting, but on Tuesday, he showed little compunction reliving it during a rally in Pennsylvania. He went on to further disparage Somalia as “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
Trump was boasting in his speech that he had last week “announced a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries,” when someone in the crowd yelled out the 2018 remark.
That prompted him to recall the 2018 incident. His telling hewed closely to the description offered at the time by people who were briefed on the Oval Office meeting.
“We had a meeting and I said, ‘Why is it we only take people from shithole countries,’ right? ‘Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?’” Trump told rallygoers.
“But we always take people from Somalia,” he continued. “Places that are a disaster. Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
Back in 2018, Trump’s comments denigrating predominantly Black nations while seeking more migration from predominantly white countries were widely denounced as racist. Some congressional Republicans condemned the comments, and foreign leaders were outraged. Botswana’s government summoned the U.S. ambassador, and Senegal’s president at the time, Macky Sall, said he was shocked, noting, “Africa and the Black race merit the respect and consideration of all.”
But since then, Trump has pushed past many norms and traditions of decorum that had guided his predecessors, both in his first term and in the years since. He often peppers his public remarks with curse words, and this year has dropped the F-bomb as cameras were rolling — on two separate occasions.
On Thanksgiving, in a pair of lengthy posts on social media complaining about immigrants, he demeaned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, using a dated slur for intellectually disabled people. Asked by a reporter if he stood by a comment that many Americans find offensive, Trump was unrepentant. “Yeah. I think there’s something wrong with him,” he said.
WASHINGTON — As he shook President Obama’s hand and pulled him in for what he thought was a private aside, Vice President Joe Biden delivered an explicit message: “This is a big f——— deal.” The remark, overheard on live microphones at a 2010 ceremony for the Affordable Care Act, caused a sensation because open profanity from a national leader was unusual at the time.
More than 15 years later, vulgarity is now in vogue.
During a political rally Tuesday night in Pennsylvania that was intended to focus on tackling inflation, President Trump used profanity at least four times. At one point, he even admitted to disparaging Haiti and African nations as “ shithole countries ” during a private 2018 meeting, a comment he denied at the time. And before a bank of cameras during a lengthy Cabinet meeting last week, the Republican president referred to alleged drug smugglers as “sons of b——-s.”
While the Biden incident was accidental, the frequency, sharpness and public nature of Trump’s comments are intentional. They build on his project to combat what he sees as pervasive political correctness. Leaders in both parties are seemingly in a race now to the verbal gutter.
Vice President JD Vance called a podcast host a “dips—t” in September. In Thanksgiving remarks before troops, Vance joked that anyone who said they liked turkey was “full of s—-.” After one National Guard member was killed in a shooting in Washington last month and a second was critically injured, top Trump aide Steven Cheung told a reporter on social media to “shut the f—- up” when she wrote that the deployment of troops in the nation’s capital was “for political show.”
Among Democrats, former Vice President Kamala Harris earned a roar of approval from her audience in September when she condemned the Trump administration by saying “these mother———- are crazy.” After Trump called for the execution of several Democratic members of Congress last month, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it was time for people with influence to “pick a f——— side.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the administration cannot “f—- around” with the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who on Monday announced her Senate campaign in Texas, did not hold back earlier this year when asked what she would tell Elon Musk if given the chance: “F—- off.”
The volley of vulgarities underscore an ever-coarsening political environment that often plays out on social media or other digital platforms where the posts or video clips that evoke the strongest emotions are rewarded with the most engagement.
“If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at the social media companies,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said Tuesday night at Washington National Cathedral, where he spoke at an event focused on political civility. “It’s not a fair fight. They’ve hijacked our brains. They understand these dopamine hits. Outrage sells.”
Cox, whose national profile rose after calling for civility in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination in his state, approved an overhaul of social media laws meant to protect children. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the state law.
Tough political talk is nothing new
Tough talk is nothing new in politics, but leaders long avoided flaunting it.
Recordings from Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, for instance, revealed a crude, profane side of his personality that was largely kept private. Republican Richard Nixon bemoaned the fact that the foul language he used in the Oval Office was captured on tape. “Since neither I nor most other Presidents had ever used profanity in public, millions were shocked,” Nixon wrote in his book “In the Arena.”
“Politicians have always sworn, just behind closed doors,” said Benjamin Bergen, a professor at the University of California-San Diego’s Department of Cognitive Science and the author of “What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves.” “The big change is in the past 10 years or so, it’s been much more public.”
As both parties prepare for the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential campaign, the question is whether this language will become increasingly mainstream. Republicans who simply try to imitate Trump’s brash style do not always succeed with voters. Democrats who turn to vulgarities risk appearing inauthentic if their words feel forced.
For some, it is just a distraction.
“It’s not necessary,” said GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring next year after winning five elections in one of the most competitive House districts. “If that’s what it takes to get your point across, you’re not a good communicator.”
There are risks of overusing profanity
There also is a risk that if such language becomes overused, its utility as a way to shock and connect with audiences could be dulled. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has talked about this problem, noting that he used swear words in his early routines but dropped them as his career progressed because he felt profanity yielded only cheap laughs.
“I felt like well I just got a laugh because I said f—- in there,” he said in a 2020 interview on the WTF podcast with fellow comedian Marc Maron. “You didn’t find the gold.”
White House spokesperson Liz Huston said Trump “doesn’t care about being politically correct, he cares about Making America Great Again. The American people love how authentic, transparent, and effective the President is.”
But for Trump, the words that have generated the most controversy are often less centered in traditional profanity than slurs that can be interpreted as hurtful. The final weeks of his 2016 campaign were rocked when a tape emerged of him discussing grabbing women by their genitals, language he minimized as “locker room talk.” His “shithole” remark in 2018 was widely condemned as racist.
More recently, Trump called a female journalist “piggy,” comments that his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, defended as evidence of a president who is “very frank and honest.” Trump’s use of a slur about disabled people prompted an Indiana Republican whose child has Down syndrome to come out in opposition to the president’s push to redraw the state’s congressional districts.
On rare occasions, politicians express contrition for their choice of words. In an interview with The Atlantic published last week, Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., dismissed Harris’ depiction of him in her book about last year’s presidential campaign by saying she was “trying to sell books and cover her a—.”
He seemed to catch himself quickly.
“I shouldn’t say ‘cover her a—,” he said. “I think that’s not appropriate.”
Tony Dokoupil is expected to move from mornings to evenings at CBS News.
Dokoupil, currently the co-host of “CBS Mornings,” has signed a new deal to take over as anchor of “CBS Evening News,” according to several people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly. One person said an announcement is expected as soon as this week.
A representative for CBS News declined comment. Dokoupil, 44, did not respond to a request for comment.
The news division’s signature program is expected to return to a solo anchor format after pairing John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois over the last year. Both Dickerson and DuBois are departing CBS News later this month.
The appointment of Dokoupil would not point to a major change in direction at the program. Dokoupil, who has been with CBS News since 2016 after three years at NBC, became co-host at CBS Mornings in 2019.
Bari Weiss, the recently appointed editor in chief at CBS News, reportedly expressed a desire to bring in an outside name, including Bret Baier, the Washington-based anchor at conservative-leaning Fox News. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was also discussed internally, but he chose to sign a new deal with his network.
The Free Press, the digital news site co-founded by Weiss and acquired by Paramount, vigorously defended Dokoupil last year when he was at the center of controversy over an aggressive on-air interview he conducted with author Ta-Nehisi Coates last year.
Dokoupil was admonished in an editorial meeting for how he questioned Coates about his new book, “The Message,” which examines the Israel-Gaza conflict. CBS News leadership said on the call that the interview did not meet the company’s editorial standards after receiving a number of complaints from staffers.
A recording of the meeting was posted on the Free Press site.
“It is journalists like Tony Dokoupil who are an endangered species in legacy news organizations, which are wilting to the pressures of this new elite consensus,” the editors of the Free Press wrote on the matter.
Shari Redstone, the former majority shareholder in CBS News parent Paramount, also publicly expressed her support for Dokoupil at the time. She said CBS News executives made “a bad mistake” in their handling of the matter. Both executives who led the editorial call, Wendy McMahon and Adrienne Roark, are no longer with the network.
After an unusual year in his late-night tenure, Jimmy Kimmel is officially sticking around for a little while longer.
The host signed a one-year contract extension with ABC so “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will continue through May 2027. Kimmel’s previous contract was set to expire in May 2026, at the end of the 2025-2026 television season.
The extension, first reported by Bloomberg, comes a few months after the network and its parent company, Walt Disney Co., temporarily benched Kimmel following sharp backlash over comments he made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death. Hours before the indefinite suspension was announced, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of ABC affiliates, said they would not air the series after Kimmel’s comments.
Kimmel returned to the air after a nearly weeklong absence, delivering an emotional monologue in which he ardently defended free speech. He did not explicitly apologize for his comments, which Sinclair said was a condition that had to be met before it would broadcast the show again, but both Nexstar and Sinclair resumed airing the program shortly after Kimmel returned.
During his brief time off the air, Kimmel found himself at the center of a fiery culture war. Talk show hosts, actors, comedians, writers and even the former head of Disney condemned ABC’s decision to pause production, but a wave of critics celebrated Kimmel’s suspension, including President Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who had publicly urged ABC to act on Kimmel’s comments.
The late-night landscape has been the subject of much discourse about free speech since CBS announced in July that it would not be renewing the storied network franchise “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” The decision, the company said, was due to financial reasons and not — as many have speculated — because of Colbert’s criticism of a settlement between the Trump administration and Paramount, the parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
The Ashes: Zak Crawley unaware of Ben Stokes’ ‘weak men’ comment
Opener Zak Crawley suggested he was not aware of comments made by Ben Stokes when the England captain said his dressing room is “not a place for weak men”.
Stokes made the statement in multiple interviews following England’s defeat in the second Ashes Test against Australia earlier this month.
In the run-up to the third Test, in which England are set to be beaten to lose the series at the earliest opportunity, Stokes said he had let his message “drift around” his players.
“I’ve done all the talking over the past two days that I needed to have done,” said the all-rounder.
But after Crawley made 85 on the fourth day of the third Test in Adelaide, he said: “I didn’t see that.
“I didn’t see and wasn’t really looking out for it. We take everything that is said in the media with a pinch of salt.”
Stokes made the “weak men” comment after England were beaten in Brisbane to go 2-0 down.
The England squad subsequently went on holiday to Noosa between the second and third Tests.
Before this match in Adelaide, Stokes said his team had held “raw” conversations. The captain also asked his players to “show a bit of dog” in their battle to remain in the series.
But Kent’s Crawley stated the messaging from Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum had remained consistent with their previous three years in charge.
“It’s been very positive, the same as always,” said Crawley. “[It’s] just trying to be optimistic, play our way, with lots of freedom. It felt like we could do something special going into this game.”
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How did a middle-aged British man in a bathrobe become a global DJ sensation?
A different type of British invasion had EDM fans in a trance at the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Armed with turntables, social media-star-turned-professional-party-starter Fish56Octagon made his U.S. festival debut Nov. 21 and 22 at Insomniac’s Dreamstate SoCal, where he performed alongside some of the world’s most preeminent electronic artists, including Tiësto, Paul Oakenfold, Gareth Emery, Ferry Corsten and Chicane.
Fish, as he’s called, is a 46-year-old from the London suburbs who joined TikTok on a drunken whim after being introduced to the app by friends in 2021. Now boasting over a million followers across platforms, he’s seen his life flip because of that choice — quitting a full-time marketing career to become a DJ, produce music and play sets at some of the world’s biggest music festivals in the four years since he uploaded his first video.
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Though his initial post was about his watch collection, the self-described “petrol head” quickly went deep into creating content about cars and made a successful side hustle within a couple years. Crossover between auto enthusiasts and the music lovers in his audience meant the dance songs he used to soundtrack his car videos and sporadic vinyl-haul unboxings spawned passionate discussion in the comments about the classic rave songs Fish was sharing with the world.
He also benefited from an accidental, scroll-stopping visual hook repeated across videos born from his employer asking him to ensure it didn’t look like he was posting during business hours: middle-aged, thin and bald, dropping dad moves in front of his sprawling Technics decks and pumping his fists to the beat between bites of Weetabix biscuits, all while wearing a red and black dressing gown (what Americans would call a robe), gifted to Fish’s wife by his mother.
Screen shot of Fish DJing on TikTok in his bathrobe
(TikTok)
“That gown is elegant,” wrote a fan in the comments.
“It was legit my mum’s but she found it too hot,” Fish responded.
“You the same build as your mum” another person wrote back, punctuating the comment with a sweating smiley face emoji.
Fish also began to livestream on TikTok late into the night, playing his own mixes for the first time in 20 years.
“I remember seeing people commenting on the Live going, ‘Mate, we were watching you before we went out. We’ve just gone on a whole night out in our city, come back and you’re still here playing,’” Fish said. “I just love it. Sharing and being able to get out those obscure records. Sometimes it’s the big anthems everyone knows and sometimes it’s a tune that was an anthem to me.”
He’s had a decades-long education in electronic music. Fish was introduced to the genre on the cusp of his teen years through an episode of the British detective show “Inspector Morse.” One episode took place in the illegal rave scene and he thought it looked like fun to party in an old warehouse.
Fish’s taste quickly developed by listening to pirate radio and vinyl. He pieced together his first setup with two hi-fi record players his dad had in the attic. Only one had pitch control. He learned to beatmatch by plugging a player into each side of his amplifier and using the balance knob to fade between them. He was given Soundlab DLP-1 belt-driven turntables for his birthday and his obsession accelerated over the next several years.
Fish56Octagon performing at the Dreamstate music festival in Long Beach.
(Niyaz Pirani)
“By then I was just spending every penny that I had on vinyl building my record collection up. It was all rave music, early old school, hardcore jungle, and then happy hardcore, drum and bass around that sort of time, early to mid-’90s,” he said. “I played quite a few house parties.”
He became a de-facto resident DJ in college, spinning vinyl in the student union, and dabbled in music production at the same time. He eventually sold his analog kit and synthesizers when he switched to Ableton. He downsized his record collection as he converted them to MP3s.
The demands of his post-college marketing career meant the DJ dream disappeared for many years. That was until his TikTok Live sets gave him a second chance as club promoters reached out in the hope of booking him. Fish admits a lack of confidence caused him to stay on the sidelines. It was an offer in February 2024 to play a solo show at Hidden in Manchester — about the same time he switched his channel over entirely to music — that got him out of his house and onto a stage.
“Even if I wasn’t sure that people would come, I knew that anyone that did come would be coming to see me,” he said. “ … I ended up putting a night on where I played for five hours straight, just me from the start to the end. When the tickets went on sale, it sold out a good couple of months before the event.”
Fish wondered if it was a one-off event or the beginning of a life-changing run. Then the offers came in from other big U.K. cities — FishTales in Newcastle; acid techno at Beaverworks in Leeds; raves in Liverpool and Birmingham. He hired an agent. Dropped some merch.
“Not sure how this happened! But I’m here for it and hope you are too,” he wrote online.
A 20-date summer tour featured three different sets at the famed Glastonbury Festival, and appearances at Reading and Creamfields. He also traveled to Ireland, Scotland and Malta, marking his first time playing professionally outside of England.
He quit his day job in August 2024 to DJ and focus on music production full time with the support of his wife, children and parents.
“They support me even though it comes at a cost that I can’t always spend as much time with them, but they understand that I’m following my dream, following my passion, and doing something positive,” he said.
He’s gained an appreciation as a historian of the genre. Fish’s followers have grown to include Skrillex, David Guetta, Disclosure, Bicep and more of the artists he has admired and now counts among his peers.
“For about the first year, I often would wake up in the morning — I’m gonna get a little bit emotional just talking about this — but I’d wake up in the morning and just think, ‘Wow, that was all a dream, wasn’t it?” he said. “Then I look at my phone. I can see that actually it was real.”
Fish attributes his success to social media, though he said it’s a mistake to think just having social media followers guarantees bookings and the upward trajectory of one’s career.
“They’re actually a function of each other. It’s because I was making content that proved to be popular about music that I managed to build up a following and have those opportunities come my way,” he said. “I’ve now played, getting on for, 200 professional gigs at various clubs, festivals, events, raves, all around the world.”
Fish waited until November 2025 to make his first trek to North America with an 11-date run featuring his first U.S. festival booking. He chose Dreamstate because he’s always had a special place in his heart for trance and the emotional connection people have with the music.
“I love all dance music, but trance is the one that can kind of tug at your heartstrings a bit with those melodies, and the chord progression, and the way that the beats can be so crisp when they come in, and the way the bass hits,” he said.
Fish performed Friday night on “The Vision.” It’s the same stage played by legends Chicane and Paul Oakenfold this year and Darude last. He also co-headlined an hour-long B2B with Night 1 Dreamstate headliner Gareth Emery early Sunday morning, as the top-billed act for the festival’s afterparty in the Grand Salon of the iconic Queen Mary.
He made his way to LAX after stepping off stage at 3 a.m. to fly to New York and play the last three hours of a 24-hour rave.
Chicane and Fish56Octagon run into each other in the lobby of the Long Beach Hilton after playing the same stage Night 1 of Dreamstate.
(Niyaz Pirani)
Fish has tour dates in New Zealand and Australia toward the end of the year, plus the largest show of his career March 28 at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. He’s also releasing music for himself and others under his record label Octagon Discs.
As his audience multiplies, Fish’s earliest followers remain enthralled by his seemingly infinite rise.
“How did the dude who recommends second-hand cars get to this. So happy for you dude,” one fan wrote in the comments of his Dreamstate recap video post.
“Music was my number 1 passion but i thought I was too old. Thanks for the support bro,” Fish replied.
“Amazing,” another chimed in. “But I would not recognize u in the wild without the bathrobe.”
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Senators dig into FCC chairman’s role in Jimmy Kimmel controversy
U.S. senators peppered Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr with questions during a wide-ranging hearing exploring media censorship, the FCC’s oversight and Carr’s alleged intimidation tactics during the firestorm over ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s comments earlier this fall.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee following the furor over ABC’s brief suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” amid social media backlash over Kimmel’s remarks in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.
Walt Disney Co. leaders yanked Kimmel off the air Sept. 17, hours after Carr suggested that Disney-owned ABC should punish the late-night comedian for his remarks — or face FCC scrutiny. Soon, two major TV station groups announced that they were pulling Kimmel’s show, although both reinstated the program several days after ABC resumed production.
Progressives were riled by the President Trump-appointed chairman’s seeming willingness to go after broadcasters in an alleged violation of their First Amendment rights. At the time, a few fellow Republicans, including Cruz, blasted Carr for suggesting to ABC: “We can do this the easy way or hard way.”
Cruz, in September, said that Carr’s comments belonged in the mob movie “Goodfellas.”
On Wednesday, Carr said his comments about Kimmel were not intended as threats against Disney or the two ABC-affiliated station groups that preempted Kimmel’s show.
The chairman argued the FCC had statutory authority to make sure that TV stations acted in the public interest, although Carr did not clarify how one jumbled sentence in Kimmel’s Sept. 15 monologue violated the broadcasters’ obligation to serve its communities.
Cruz was conciliatory Wednesday, praising Carr’s work in his first year as FCC chairman. However, Democrats on the panel attempted to pivot much of the three-hour session into a public airing of the Trump administration’s desire to punish broadcasters whom the president doesn’t like — and Carr’s seeming willingness to go along.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing.
(Associated Press)
Carr was challenged by numerous Democrats who suggested he was demonstrating fealty to the president rather than running the FCC as an independent licensing body.
Despite the landmark Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC, the agency isn’t exactly independent, Carr and fellow Republican Commissioner Olivia Trusty testified.
The two Republicans said because Trump has the power to hire and fire commissioners, the FCC was more akin to other agencies within the federal government.
“Then is President Trump your boss?” asked Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). The senator then asked Carr whether he remembered his oath of office. Federal officials, including Carr, have sworn to protect the Constitution.
“The American people are your boss,” Kim said. “Have you ever had a conversation with the president or senior administration officials about using the FCC to go after critics?”
Carr declined to answer.
Protesters flocked to Hollywood to protest the preemption of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after ABC briefly pulled the late-night host off air indefinitely over comments he made about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The lone Democrat on the FCC, Anna M. Gomez, was frequently at odds with her fellow commissioners, including during an exploration of whether she felt the FCC was doing Trump’s bidding in its approach to merger approvals.
Trump separately continued his rant on media organizations he doesn’t like, writing in a Truth Social post that NBC News “should be ashamed of themselves in allowing garbage ‘interviews’” of his political rivals, in this case Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).
Trump wrote that NBC and other broadcasters should pay “significant amounts of money for using the very valuable” public airwaves.
Earlier this year, FCC approval of the Larry Ellison family’s takeover of Paramount stalled for months until Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over his grievances with edits of a CBS “60 Minutes” pre-election interview with Kamala Harris.
“Without a doubt, the FCC is leveraging its authority over mergers and enforcement proceedings in order to influence content,” Gomez said.
Parts of the hearing devolved into partisan bickering over whether Democrats or Republicans had a worse track record of trampling on the 1st Amendment. Cruz and other Republicans referenced a 2018 letter, signed by three Democrats on the committee, which asked the FCC to investigate conservative TV station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group.
“Suddenly Democrats have discovered the 1st Amendment,” Cruz said. “Maybe remember it when Democrats are in power. The 1st Amendment is not a one-way license for one team to abuse the power.
“We should respect the free speech of all Americans, regardless of party,” Cruz said.
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Andy Dick says fentanyl caused his overdose, not crack cocaine
Andy Dick says he is “110 percent” fine after video of him slumped over unresponsive on some steps from an apparent overdose in Hollywood circulated this week.
The comedian and convicted sex offender has been updating numerous outlets about the incident, telling the New York Post on Friday that he believes fentanyl is to blame for his medical emergency. This follows his Wednesday interview with TMZ in which he mentioned he doesn’t “mind doing a little crack [cocaine] every now and then.”
“It has to be [fentanyl],” Dick said to the Post, explaining that paramedics told his friends that the synthetic opioid was the likely cause. “That’s the only thing that can kill you that quickly, like I just dropped.”
Dick recounted to both outlets how he was out with friends Tuesday when he saw a stranger waving him over. He then “snuck away” briefly and did some drugs.
“There was a guy that was my age and I felt for him,” Dick said to TMZ. “He was depressed and he was on the sidewalk … and then he whipped out [what looked like] crack. And I’m like, you know what, I might need a little bit of that.”
He told the Post that he then “just dropped,” but declined to elaborate any further.
According to Shawn Harrell, who came across the scene as friends were trying to revive the unresponsive comedian and was present when first responders arrived, Dick was in pretty bad shape Tuesday.
“He was blue. His hands [were] blue and his face was blue,” Harrell told People. “His body was limp. It was like deadweight. … I thought he passed away.”
But after being administered some Narcan, the brand name of a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, Dick reportedly was able to leave the area with a friend and was not transported to a hospital.
“It was a group effort,” one of Dick’s friends said to TMZ.
According to the Post, Dick’s comments about crack were meant to be a joke.
“I jokingly said ‘a little crack every now and then [is] not gonna kill anybody,’ but it killed me,” Dick said. “It killed me. I died, you know, my lips turned purple.”
Dick has a history of incidents involving drugs and alcohol, including arrests for public intoxication, drug possession, sexual misconduct and domestic violence. He reportedly indulges in more alcohol than drugs, according to a Friday TMZ report.
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Timothee Chalamet breaks silence on rumours he’s secretly performing as EsDeeKid with cryptic comment live on Radio 1
HOLLYWOOD star Timothee Chalamet has finally broken his silence on rumours he is living a secret double life as Scouse rapper EsDeeKid.
The Call Me By Your Name actor, 29, has faced increasing speculation over the past few weeks that he is the man behind EsDeeKid – one of this year’s biggest rap breakthroughs in the UK.
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EsDeeKid has never revealed his identity or anything connected to his personal life and keeps his face covered by masks at all time.
However, social media became awash with theories that the rap star was actually New Yorker Timothee thanks to a series of coincidences.
Now, the Wonka star has addressed the rumours for the first time in an interview on BBC Radio One with Greg James ahead of the release of his next movie, Marty Supreme.
Greg simply started by saying the name EsDeeKid to Timothee to which he quickly said: “No comment.”
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Kylie Jenner & Timothee Chalamet hit back at split rumors & match outfits
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Wild theory Timothee Chalamet is secretly performing as Brit rapper EsDeeKid
The actor then coyly added with a smirk upon his face: “All will be revealed in due time.”
Greg then went on to explain the theory and showed Timothee images of EsDeeKid in which his piercing blue eyes, which bear a striking resemblance to the Dune actor’s, could be seen through gaps in his masks.
The radio host asked Timothee if he agreed that they were “beautiful eyes”, with the actor simply replying: “Yes.”
Greg then asked once again if the star was him leaving Timothee to repeat: “All… will be revealed in due time.”
Little is known about EsDeeKid but he began to emerge in 2023 and achieved recognition for his 2024 song Bally.
He previously revealed he still lived in the council house he grew up in.
His debut album, Rebel, released this June has become one of the most popular hip-hop albums of the year after reaching the top ten in the UK as well as charting in America and Australia.
Speculation that Timothee is behind the mask gained traction online last month.
“Their eyes are extremely similar, I haven’t seen anything like it,” wrote one user on Reddit earlier this month.
While another user was convinced they have the same hands: “Guys i did a huge analysis looking at pics of Timothy’s hands VS Esdee kids hands. Same exact hands. Same vein placement and everything. I should make a video about it because it’s literally proof.”
Their similar fashion sense has also been used as a way of comparison between the two.
Timothee is currently in the UK ahead of the release of his new movie, Marty Supreme.
He was seen getting cosy with girlfriend Kylie Jenner at the launch of the film earlier this week where they coordinated in matching orange Chrome Hearts outfits.
The couple have been dating for almost three years having first been linked in April 2023 but have often kept their romance private and under wraps.
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Trump once denied using this slur about Haiti and African nations. Now he boasts about it
President Trump admitted Tuesday that he used the slur “shithole countries” to disparage Haiti and African nations during a 2018 meeting with lawmakers, bragging about a comment that sparked global outrage during his first term.
Back then, Trump had denied making the contemptuous statement during a closed-door meeting, but on Tuesday, he showed little compunction reliving it during a rally in Pennsylvania. He went on to further disparage Somalia as “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
Trump was boasting in his speech that he had last week “announced a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries,” when someone in the crowd yelled out the 2018 remark.
That prompted him to recall the 2018 incident. His telling hewed closely to the description offered at the time by people who were briefed on the Oval Office meeting.
“We had a meeting and I said, ‘Why is it we only take people from shithole countries,’ right? ‘Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?’” Trump told rallygoers.
“But we always take people from Somalia,” he continued. “Places that are a disaster. Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
The White House at the time did not deny Trump’s remarks, but the president posted on Twitter the day after the news broke that “this was not the language I used.” He added that he “never said anything derogatory about Haitians.”
Back in 2018, Trump’s comments denigrating predominantly Black nations while seeking more migration from predominantly white countries were widely denounced as racist. Some congressional Republicans condemned the comments, and foreign leaders were outraged. Botswana’s government summoned the U.S. ambassador, and Senegal’s president at the time, Macky Sall, said he was shocked, noting, “Africa and the Black race merit the respect and consideration of all.”
But since then, Trump has pushed past many norms and traditions of decorum that had guided his predecessors, both in his first term and in the years since. He often peppers his public remarks with curse words, and this year has dropped the F-bomb as cameras were rolling — on two separate occasions.
On Thanksgiving, in a pair of lengthy posts on social media complaining about immigrants, he demeaned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, using a dated slur for intellectually disabled people. Asked by a reporter if he stood by a comment that many Americans find offensive, Trump was unrepentant. “Yeah. I think there’s something wrong with him,” he said.
Cooper writes for the Associated Press.
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WTF? Embracing profanity is one thing both political parties seem to agree on
WASHINGTON — As he shook President Obama’s hand and pulled him in for what he thought was a private aside, Vice President Joe Biden delivered an explicit message: “This is a big f——— deal.” The remark, overheard on live microphones at a 2010 ceremony for the Affordable Care Act, caused a sensation because open profanity from a national leader was unusual at the time.
More than 15 years later, vulgarity is now in vogue.
During a political rally Tuesday night in Pennsylvania that was intended to focus on tackling inflation, President Trump used profanity at least four times. At one point, he even admitted to disparaging Haiti and African nations as “ shithole countries ” during a private 2018 meeting, a comment he denied at the time. And before a bank of cameras during a lengthy Cabinet meeting last week, the Republican president referred to alleged drug smugglers as “sons of b——-s.”
While the Biden incident was accidental, the frequency, sharpness and public nature of Trump’s comments are intentional. They build on his project to combat what he sees as pervasive political correctness. Leaders in both parties are seemingly in a race now to the verbal gutter.
Vice President JD Vance called a podcast host a “dips—t” in September. In Thanksgiving remarks before troops, Vance joked that anyone who said they liked turkey was “full of s—-.” After one National Guard member was killed in a shooting in Washington last month and a second was critically injured, top Trump aide Steven Cheung told a reporter on social media to “shut the f—- up” when she wrote that the deployment of troops in the nation’s capital was “for political show.”
Among Democrats, former Vice President Kamala Harris earned a roar of approval from her audience in September when she condemned the Trump administration by saying “these mother———- are crazy.” After Trump called for the execution of several Democratic members of Congress last month, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it was time for people with influence to “pick a f——— side.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the administration cannot “f—- around” with the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who on Monday announced her Senate campaign in Texas, did not hold back earlier this year when asked what she would tell Elon Musk if given the chance: “F—- off.”
The volley of vulgarities underscore an ever-coarsening political environment that often plays out on social media or other digital platforms where the posts or video clips that evoke the strongest emotions are rewarded with the most engagement.
“If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at the social media companies,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said Tuesday night at Washington National Cathedral, where he spoke at an event focused on political civility. “It’s not a fair fight. They’ve hijacked our brains. They understand these dopamine hits. Outrage sells.”
Cox, whose national profile rose after calling for civility in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination in his state, approved an overhaul of social media laws meant to protect children. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the state law.
Tough political talk is nothing new
Tough talk is nothing new in politics, but leaders long avoided flaunting it.
Recordings from Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, for instance, revealed a crude, profane side of his personality that was largely kept private. Republican Richard Nixon bemoaned the fact that the foul language he used in the Oval Office was captured on tape. “Since neither I nor most other Presidents had ever used profanity in public, millions were shocked,” Nixon wrote in his book “In the Arena.”
“Politicians have always sworn, just behind closed doors,” said Benjamin Bergen, a professor at the University of California-San Diego’s Department of Cognitive Science and the author of “What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves.” “The big change is in the past 10 years or so, it’s been much more public.”
As both parties prepare for the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential campaign, the question is whether this language will become increasingly mainstream. Republicans who simply try to imitate Trump’s brash style do not always succeed with voters. Democrats who turn to vulgarities risk appearing inauthentic if their words feel forced.
For some, it is just a distraction.
“It’s not necessary,” said GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring next year after winning five elections in one of the most competitive House districts. “If that’s what it takes to get your point across, you’re not a good communicator.”
There are risks of overusing profanity
There also is a risk that if such language becomes overused, its utility as a way to shock and connect with audiences could be dulled. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has talked about this problem, noting that he used swear words in his early routines but dropped them as his career progressed because he felt profanity yielded only cheap laughs.
“I felt like well I just got a laugh because I said f—- in there,” he said in a 2020 interview on the WTF podcast with fellow comedian Marc Maron. “You didn’t find the gold.”
White House spokesperson Liz Huston said Trump “doesn’t care about being politically correct, he cares about Making America Great Again. The American people love how authentic, transparent, and effective the President is.”
But for Trump, the words that have generated the most controversy are often less centered in traditional profanity than slurs that can be interpreted as hurtful. The final weeks of his 2016 campaign were rocked when a tape emerged of him discussing grabbing women by their genitals, language he minimized as “locker room talk.” His “shithole” remark in 2018 was widely condemned as racist.
More recently, Trump called a female journalist “piggy,” comments that his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, defended as evidence of a president who is “very frank and honest.” Trump’s use of a slur about disabled people prompted an Indiana Republican whose child has Down syndrome to come out in opposition to the president’s push to redraw the state’s congressional districts.
On rare occasions, politicians express contrition for their choice of words. In an interview with The Atlantic published last week, Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., dismissed Harris’ depiction of him in her book about last year’s presidential campaign by saying she was “trying to sell books and cover her a—.”
He seemed to catch himself quickly.
“I shouldn’t say ‘cover her a—,” he said. “I think that’s not appropriate.”
Sloan writes for the Associated Press.
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Will Tony Dokoupil be the next anchor of ‘CBS Evening News’?
Tony Dokoupil is expected to move from mornings to evenings at CBS News.
Dokoupil, currently the co-host of “CBS Mornings,” has signed a new deal to take over as anchor of “CBS Evening News,” according to several people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly. One person said an announcement is expected as soon as this week.
A representative for CBS News declined comment. Dokoupil, 44, did not respond to a request for comment.
The news division’s signature program is expected to return to a solo anchor format after pairing John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois over the last year. Both Dickerson and DuBois are departing CBS News later this month.
The appointment of Dokoupil would not point to a major change in direction at the program. Dokoupil, who has been with CBS News since 2016 after three years at NBC, became co-host at CBS Mornings in 2019.
Bari Weiss, the recently appointed editor in chief at CBS News, reportedly expressed a desire to bring in an outside name, including Bret Baier, the Washington-based anchor at conservative-leaning Fox News. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was also discussed internally, but he chose to sign a new deal with his network.
The Free Press, the digital news site co-founded by Weiss and acquired by Paramount, vigorously defended Dokoupil last year when he was at the center of controversy over an aggressive on-air interview he conducted with author Ta-Nehisi Coates last year.
Dokoupil was admonished in an editorial meeting for how he questioned Coates about his new book, “The Message,” which examines the Israel-Gaza conflict. CBS News leadership said on the call that the interview did not meet the company’s editorial standards after receiving a number of complaints from staffers.
A recording of the meeting was posted on the Free Press site.
“It is journalists like Tony Dokoupil who are an endangered species in legacy news organizations, which are wilting to the pressures of this new elite consensus,” the editors of the Free Press wrote on the matter.
Shari Redstone, the former majority shareholder in CBS News parent Paramount, also publicly expressed her support for Dokoupil at the time. She said CBS News executives made “a bad mistake” in their handling of the matter. Both executives who led the editorial call, Wendy McMahon and Adrienne Roark, are no longer with the network.
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Jimmy Kimmel extends ABC contract by one year
After an unusual year in his late-night tenure, Jimmy Kimmel is officially sticking around for a little while longer.
The host signed a one-year contract extension with ABC so “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will continue through May 2027. Kimmel’s previous contract was set to expire in May 2026, at the end of the 2025-2026 television season.
The extension, first reported by Bloomberg, comes a few months after the network and its parent company, Walt Disney Co., temporarily benched Kimmel following sharp backlash over comments he made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death. Hours before the indefinite suspension was announced, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of ABC affiliates, said they would not air the series after Kimmel’s comments.
Kimmel returned to the air after a nearly weeklong absence, delivering an emotional monologue in which he ardently defended free speech. He did not explicitly apologize for his comments, which Sinclair said was a condition that had to be met before it would broadcast the show again, but both Nexstar and Sinclair resumed airing the program shortly after Kimmel returned.
During his brief time off the air, Kimmel found himself at the center of a fiery culture war. Talk show hosts, actors, comedians, writers and even the former head of Disney condemned ABC’s decision to pause production, but a wave of critics celebrated Kimmel’s suspension, including President Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who had publicly urged ABC to act on Kimmel’s comments.
The late-night landscape has been the subject of much discourse about free speech since CBS announced in July that it would not be renewing the storied network franchise “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” The decision, the company said, was due to financial reasons and not — as many have speculated — because of Colbert’s criticism of a settlement between the Trump administration and Paramount, the parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
Kimmel’s previous contract extension in 2022 was good for three years. It came at a time of speculation over whether he’d continue with the show.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs weeknights at 11:35/10:35 Central.
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