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Vanity Flair: Legendary editor Graydon Carter, a man who knows fashion better than most, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to create his own replica of the infamous Breaker fedora.
Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!
In tonight’s bumper edition, the Breaker Pod was graced by the presence of media royalty this week as the one and only Graydon Carter joined us behind the mic. Famously never shy for words, the former editor of Vanity Fair revealed which Trump family member once called him to kill a yarn, the billionaire he is encouraging to buy the Washington Post, a Christopher Hitchens doco that he is working on, and, for the first time ever, his take on the Air Puck deal that Breaker broke last year. We also chinwagged about his memoir, “When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines.”
Also tonight, Jake Tapper has a new project up his sleeve, some Breaker readers, we are sure, will be thrilled to hear it isn’t another book. It’ll be a star turn for Tapper, so read on to find out what he’s up to.
Plus, it’s the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend, and we have the latest on the British invasion sitting amongst the Politico tables. We also reveal where Bari Weiss and her beefy bodyguards were spotted in D.C. on Thursday.
We also have a scene report from Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo media company’s second birthday, where Breaker bumped into Mayor Zohran Mamdani (we have the photographic proof), and tech reporter Heather Kelly is trading Washington for sunny California. We’ll tell you where she’s heading in tonight’s Breaker.
And, it’s Thursday, which means Journo Jobs is back, and tonight we have gigs at: NPR, Semafor, Wired, the Washington Post, The Wrap, and ProPublica.
Finally, Breaker is headed to our old stomping ground of London next month after being invited to speak at the Sir Harry Evans Truth Tellers Summit. We will join Tina Brown, Emma Tucker, Christiane Amanpour, Kara Swisher, Patrick Radden Keefe, Michael Gove, Katherine Viner, Alessandra Galloni, Walter Isaacson, James Harding, Katie Razzall, Jim Waterson, Emily Maitlis, and more on May 6th at Vision Hall. The event will be live-streamed at sirharrysummit.org. If you’re a London-based subscriber and would like to meet for a cheeky pint or a cuppa, get in touch.
Mentioned tonight: Jeff Bezos, Gerry Cardinale, Bari Weiss, Mark Guiducci, Dylan Byers, Piers Morgan, Harvey Levin, Zohran Mamdani, Mehdi Hasan, Hasan Minhaj, Lina Khan, Will Lewis, Claudius Senst, Jan Bayer, Mathias Döpfner, Robert Winnett, Chris Evans, Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson, Edmund Lee, Jessica Testa, Lauren Forristal, Ashley Carman, Matt Kaplan, Alex Cooper, Maggie Duffy, Mark Stenberg, Alexis Wilkins, Kash Patel, Michael S. Schmidt, Elizabeth Williamson, Dan Mangan, Frank Figliuzzi, Brian Morrissey, Caroline Calloway, Candace Owens, Mitchell Jackson, Matt Grobar, Charlotte Klein, David Ellison, Lillian Rizzo, Matt Schudel, Dan Eggen, Caroline O’Donovan, Elizabeth Ralph, John Mulholland, Heather Kelly, Jose Andres, Arian Moayed, Ben McKenzie, Morena Baccarin, Sunny Hostin, Jessica Tarlov, Jennifer Welch, Betsy Reed, Katie Phang, Emma Vigeland, Hugo Lowell, Byrd Leavell, Catherine Valentine, Andrew Kirell, Maxi Tani, Oliver Darcy, Elise Shae, Asawin Suebsaeng, Tim Duggan, Albert Lee, Spencer Ackerman, Jake Lahut, Michael Calderone, Nayeema Raza, and more.
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Graydon Carter on The Breaker Pod: Vanity Fair, Trump, Air Puck And The Billionaire He Thinks Should Buy WaPo
(Exclusive.) This week, Breaker sat down with legendary editor Graydon Carter for the latest episode of the Breaker Pod. Recorded live from Bartolo in the West Village (cheers to Chef and Owner Ryan Bartolo and team at the Terracotta Hospitality Group for inviting us down.)
As D.C. gears up for the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Carter, who spent years hosting his own post-dinner gatherings, didn’t mince words when asked whether he thinks journalists should still attend.
“No, no, I think you shouldn’t show up,” he said.
Carter recalled an earlier era at the Correspondent’s dinner when presidents like George W. Bush and Barack Obama could trade jokes with reporters onstage. That, he said, is long gone.
“It’s when there was still a respect — a grudging respect — between the press and the administration,” he said.
Carter, who famously roasted Donald Trump in Spy magazine decades ago, has watched that power shift in Trump incredibly closely. Back then, he and his co-editors viewed Trump as a…
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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.
No Country For Old Tappers
(Exclusive.) He is the author of several books, hosts an afternoon cable show, and is saving Democracy this weekend with pins and pocket squares – yes, pocket squares. And now he is about to star in yet another movie. Breaker is, of course, talking about a “friend” of media reporters, Jake Tapper, who we have learned will later this year …
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The rest of this newsletter is for paid subscribers.
⁘ Unlock full access to our twice-weekly newsletter and archive.
⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.