Michael Eric Ross
Bio
Michael Eric Ross writes from Los Angeles on politics, race, pop culture, and other subjects. His writing has also appeared in TheWrap, Medium, PopMatters, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, msnbc.com, Salon, and other publications.
Stories (48)
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Disney Gets Ready to Stream the Magic Kingdom
Technology has blown a hole in the traditional entertainment business model. That’s been true for some time — at least since 2007 when Netflix vastly reduced its position in the DVD rental business and committed to streaming content directly to consumers. Now, Disney, the whale in the waters of entertainment content, has announced plans to get into the streaming game.
By Michael Eric Ross8 years ago in Geeks
Goodbye to the Voice(s) of Our American Childhood
If you're of a certain age today in America, and even if you’re not, you lost something special on July 26. It was some of that part of yourself that, over time, you may have tricked or reasoned your way out of believing in. Your childhood.
By Michael Eric Ross8 years ago in Geeks
Trumpcare Dies in the Senate. Cause: Pre-Existing Conditions
In recent days and weeks, the debate over the future of Trumpcare in the media has generated a kind of Health Metaphor Full Employment Act. You’ve read the words: Trumpcare was On Life Support. It was in Critical Condition or Guarded Condition. It was hashtagged with #Emergency Room or it was Flatlining. Its declining fortunes dovetailed with the phrases available to describe it.
By Michael Eric Ross8 years ago in The Swamp
No’SoHa,’ NowOrEver
When I lived at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, it was a hard-won badge of honor. I’d hopscotched around New York City for more than a few years, moving from Hell’s Kitchen (in what is now predominately known as Chelsea, in a victory of urban planners with no sense of urban poetry) to Greenwich Village, and even vacating the city altogether, spending a brief stint in Jersey City.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in The Swamp
Dear Theresa: What A Difference A Year Makes
Prime Minister May, Well now. It’s been one thing after another, eh? You started with such high hopes and great expectations a year ago. After David Cameron’s uncommonly swift exit from 10 Downing Street a year ago, you took charge of the government making history from day one, as the second woman in history to serve as prime minister and leader of the Conservative (or Tory) Party—no less than Margaret Thatcher was the first. You, therefore, stepped into huge shoes to be filled.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in The Swamp
MSNBC Leans to the Right, a Little
What do Bret Stephens and Greta Van Susteren have in common? (a) Both are conservative journalists recently in the pay and orbit of conservative media; (b) both have history with MSNBC. There the similarities end, since one's just started at MSNBC, while the other just left. This latest TV minute, the square dance of talking heads has got people’s attention and sent fearful progressives rushing to social media to express their concerns.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in The Swamp
Ken: He’s Just an American Guy
The artifact historically known as Ken — a template for male American imagery for generations — has always been something of a moving target. From his early days as a miniature stand-in for the ideal guy next door in the parallel dollhouse America of 1961 (paired up with his girlfriend, female analog and fellow everyday archetype, the legendary Barbie), Ken would slowly, in some ways glacially, come to symbolize variations in the idea of the average American guy.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in Geeks
Changing the Venue. Top Story - June 2017.
Netflix debuted its $60 million original movie War Machine in late May. The reviews for the Afghan War-era film starring Brad Pitt were all over the place, from mildly rapturous to downright vicious. But if a recent study is to be believed, television viewers have made a decision about changing their moviegoing habits in a way that makes Netflix and other streaming services war machines themselves. The legacy studios are not happy.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in Geeks
Nothing to Declare?: Revisiting the (Proposed Wider) Laptop Ban
Months after the federal Department of Homeland Security banned large electronic items on U.S. bound flights originating in the Middle East, the agency is ready to double down in unsettling ways, with a proposed ban on laptops and tablets in cabins of U.S. bound flights from Europe. It hasn’t happened yet, but there’s a sense that the Trump government is quietly laying the groundwork for putting a ban in place.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in Wander
Dear Donald...
I’ve been blogging about you forever, it seems, on and off, even before the campaign that has landed you, inexplicably, in the White House. The fruition of your 2016 campaign has propelled you into an office that, frankly, I thought you had no more realistic chance to occupy than any reasonably talented golden retriever.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in The Swamp
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Alt-President of the United States
Barack Obama, out of the Oval Office for all of 111 days, has been refreshingly conspicuous in his absence from the White House. With some high-profile vacation stops — and some equally high-profile statements on pivotal matters, foreign and domestic — the former 44th president has undertaken to tweak the rules of ex-presidential decorum, and to stake out new rhetorical territory for a beloved leader on the world stage. You don’t have to be in the White House to speak truth to power ... and look pretty damn good doing it.
By Michael Eric Ross9 years ago in The Swamp
