Watch: Raw Story Editor-in-Chief Dave Levinthal details investigative reporting plans on C-SPAN

Editor-in-Chief Dave Levinthal this week detailed Raw Story’s plans for the newsroom’s investigative reporting — and dug into a pair of new investigations already published.

“In 2023, we want to expand and we want to increasingly do incisive, enterprising, original investigative journalism,” Levinthal told host Bill Scanlan on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”.

Such reporting “will not just be telling you about things that are in the news environment right now, but also, uncovering lots of news that you do not know and are not going to be finding in any other publication.”

Levinthal, a Washington, D.C.-based investigative editor and reporter, joined Raw Story in January along with Executive Editor Adam Nichols, previously the managing editor of Patch.

Also joining the staff in recent days are Night Editor Mary Papenfuss and writer Gideon Rubin.

In recent weeks, Raw Story has broken stories that have made national news. They include:

Watch the C-SPAN interview below.

 

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Rachel Maddow sounds the alarm as Trump faces an attack he doesn’t grasp: ‘Not a drill!’



President Donald Trump has made America less safe by punching a hole in the nation's ability to defend against a certain kind of attack from Iran, MS NOW's Rachel Maddow warned on Monday, and they're already taking advantage.

Maddow opened by mentioning the devastating wildfires in Spokane, Washington, and a surprising way that Trump allowed Iran to sabotage efforts to fight them.

"We're watching those fires and those evacuations tonight after what has been a terrible day in Eastern Washington State," said Maddow. Worse still, "in seven different states today, local water systems now know they have been hacked into, in a mass cyberattack that is being attributed to Iran."

"You may recall that the Trump administration dismantled or radically scaled back cybersecurity capabilities within the federal government, including inexplicably firing the head of Cyber Command in the U.S. military," said Maddow. "Well, now, local water supplies again in seven states have been hacked into by what appears to have been a foreign adversary."

"This is not a drill!" said Maddow. "This is something that is happening right now and in real life."

Trump originally blamed the attack on Minnesota's Democratic governor, Maddow noted, but at this point "it is at least seven states. And so definitely, by definition, it is not Minnesota's fault."

The upshot, Maddow said, is that Trump has a "strange inability to process this kind of information, to even seemingly understand this kind of attack," and there's no way to know whether America "is even capable of mounting a defense and a response to this kind of attack, because of the way Trump deliberately degraded our cyber capabilities."

- YouTube youtu.be

‘Roadkill Ratatouille’: RFK Jr’s new cooking show buried in mockery



Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nauseated the nation Thursday when he launched a cooking show critics feared would likely include roadkill.

"The Real Food Show" launches Thursday on his department's website and will feature celebrity chefs helping to prepare meals like "Crispy Salmon Cakes with Apple, White Bean & Green Salad" and highlighting some personal favorites like kimchi, yogurt and sauerkraut, reported USA Today.

“I use store-bought sauerkraut,” he told the newspaper, then described the correct way to eat the fermented cabbage. “The way that you're supposed to eat it is bite for bite. You take a bite of the meat, take a bite of the sauerkraut. That is kind of the prescribed, perfect way of eating it. You know, I don't do that perfectly every time that I try.”

Kennedy converted other Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, to the sauerkraut diet, and he said they'd all lost weight since then.

“I will literally eat anything because I don't have a gag reflex," Kennedy said. “I love experimenting with foods. When I travel, I'll eat … street vendors’ cooking."

Kennedy said he cooks two “rudimentary” meals a day, adding that his repertoire was eggs, bacon, cheeseburgers and hamburgers, but he said his wife Cheryl Hines is a much better cook.

“I can cook a really good omelet,” Kennedy said, "and then my specialty would be steaks and meat and fish.”

The show's launch generated some skeptical coverage given Kennedy's history of handling roadkill and overseeing an outbreak of several food-borne illnesses since taking over the nation's public health.

"Why is Kennedy directing his attention to making cooking videos instead of managing these real problems? One reason could be that Kennedy has reportedly 'checked out' of his job and barely attends meetings, showing up to work at 10 a.m. only to leave around 4 p.m. He seems to care only about overhauling dietary guidelines and pushing an anti-vaccine agenda. The latter has led to a 35-year record high for measles cases in the U.S.," noted The New Republic.

"Because who doesn’t want to prepare grub with the guy who, among many things, has a brain part-eaten by worms; a supposed car full of severed animal parts; and a history of snorting lines off toilets?" asked Jezebel, suggesting that Kennedy might share recipes with viewers for "Roadkill Ratatouille," "Lemongrass Liver Salad" and "Anti-Diarrhea Yogurt."

"Roadkill Collector Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Launches Cooking Show and Warns America: ‘I Don’t Have a Gag Reflex,'" announced Mediaite.

"Someone posted this in slack and I actually thought it was The Onion," laughed MS NOW's Brandy Zadrozny.