Columbia Journalism Review

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal claims that a law firm hired cyber mercenaries to hack into his emails and circulate embarrassing material that ultimately led to his firing from the paper. Jay Solomon, formerly the Journal’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, was unceremoniously sacked from the paper in the summer of 2017 after a tranche of emails leaked that purportedto show impropriety between him and one of his sources. The source—a wealthy defense contractor and…

Brad Parscale, Donald Trump’s former data guru and campaign manager. Photo: Tom Brenner (Getty Images)Conservative politicians, energy industry groups, Fox News, and think tanks funded by oil and gas donors have answered recent critical coverage of Texas’ power failures with full-throated condemnations of renewable energy. They inaccurately blame rising consumer prices and reduced reliability on green power sources. Beneath that loud braying, though, is a more insidious, less obviously conservative network of websites…