The Present Age Parker Molloy’s award-winning media criticism, culture, and politics newsletter.
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“Dangerous Obsession”
by Parker Molloy on August 28, 2026
Say the true thing.
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Flop Era
by Parker Molloy on August 21, 2026
Get up.
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Don’t Feed It
by Parker Molloy on August 18, 2026
The algorithm will make you mad, if you let it. I keep letting it.
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Tim Pool, Moderate? LOL
by Parker Molloy on August 17, 2026
The right-wing podcaster played the role of "moderate" on a recent Jubilee video. What?
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Political Messaging
by Parker Molloy on August 6, 2026
Nobody can tell you if Trump believes his own claims. Somehow that's not the story.
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Straight Down the Middle
by Parker Molloy on August 5, 2026
Ask the people who aren't there anymore.
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Imagining a Guy: Names Edition
by Parker Molloy on July 29, 2026
The Post found a progressive who doesn’t exist and caught her betraying a belief she doesn’t hold.
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The Punchline
by Parker Molloy on July 28, 2026
Dylan Mulvaney did nothing wrong. That's the point.
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Dinner Theater
by Parker Molloy on July 27, 2026
Everyone's writing about how Trump bombed at the correspondents' dinner. The bigger embarrassment was the press corps that sat there and took it.
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Where Did 30% of America Get This Opinion About The Odyssey?
by Parker Molloy on July 22, 2026
Nobody arrives at a take on Helen of Troy casting by accident. A YouGov poll shows what Elon Musk and right-wing media's campaign against The Odyssey actually built.
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There’s No Gotcha Here
by Parker Molloy on July 17, 2026
Calling Hegseth’s testosterone program "gender-affirming care" trivializes trans healthcare and misreads what we’re up against. Speaking only for myself: knock it off
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The Predicate
by Parker Molloy on July 14, 2026
Steve Bannon already said what Thursday’s speech is for. The only question left is whether ABC, CBS, and NBC hand over the airwaves to deliver it.
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Trusting Chatbots with Our Ballots (At the Worst Possible Moment)
by Parker Molloy on July 9, 2026
Voters are letting chatbots help fill out their ballots. The Trump administration has spent a year making sure it controls what the chatbots say.
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Go Ahead, Try and Tune Him Out
by Parker Molloy on July 7, 2026
Nine years ago, The Onion wrote a fake Trump editorial about infecting every corner of your daily life. He’s since gotten a lot better at it.
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For the Right, Playing Dumb is a Full-Time Job
by Parker Molloy on July 3, 2026
There are real criticisms you can make of any politician. Screaming “communism” at boilerplate heat-wave advice probably isn’t one of them.
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Reasonable Concerns
by Parker Molloy on July 1, 2026
The wedge on trans people moved exactly where we said it would. The people who gave it cover are still quiet.
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"Keep It Baseball Related"
by Parker Molloy on June 25, 2026
A roomful of Giants beat writers just did the accountability journalism the White House press corps keeps deciding it can’t.
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The Reflecting Pool Chaos Really Isn't Funny
by Parker Molloy on June 24, 2026
The reflecting pool was a corruption story before it was an arrest story. Watch how the wire wrote it down.
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You Can Go to Prison for Saying This
by Parker Molloy on June 17, 2026
How a 'Whitest Kids U' Know' bit went from the Supreme Court to a Channel 5 daytime show, and what the UK is actually doing to people holding cardboard signs.
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A Head on a Pike
by Parker Molloy on June 16, 2026
Everyone calling the Bud Light logo on the White House lawn hypocrisy has the dynamics backward.






