Latest news with #Spiegelman
USA Today
04-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Has Texas Tech beaten out Texas Longhorns for five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo?
For a few weeks, the Texas Longhorns looked to be in the driver's seat to land five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo. The Mansfield, TX blue chipper recently took an official visit to the 40 Acres, after cancelling an official visit to Oklahoma. But it seems like a big NIL offer has come in from Texas Tech, and it may win over the lineman. Ojo spoke with Rivals analyst Sam Spiegelman at the Rivals Five-Star Challenge last week and said the race was close between Texas and Ohio State. Ojo also lists Florida and Michigan in his final four. Ojo, who struggled so badly at the Rivals' event that he issued a public statement, is the nation's No. 5 overall prospect, No. 1 offensive tackle and No. 2 player in Texas. Spiegelman and Rivals analyst Justin Wells both put in an official prediction that Texas was the choice. But with less than 24 hours until Ojo's commitment announcement, things have changed. Spiegelman and Rivals/On3 VP Steve Wiltfong have both projected Texas Tech getting the commitment out of Ojo. The assumption is billionaire Texas Tech alum Cody Campbell has made the 6-foot-6, 275-pound recruit a huge NIL offer. Campbell founded the Red Raiders NIL collective called The Matador Club. This is the same way Tech was able to pay softball pitcher NiJaree Canady $1 million dollars to transfer to Lubbock from Stanford. When an 11th hour official prediction from a well-known recruiting analyst come in, they are correct 99% of the time. It's usually because the recruit told the analyst and gave them quotes so they can get a story up as soon as the commitment occurs. We'll see at 1 p.m. CT on the 4th of July, when Ojo is schedule to commit. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @LonghornsWire.
USA Today
24-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Coveted five-star offensive lineman says Ohio State and Texas are the \
Any coach in America will tell you that football games are won and lost in the trenches. That simple truth makes recruiting offensive and defensive linemen a priority, and Ohio State is in a battle for one of the top offensive tackles in the country. Felix Ojo is the No. 1 tackle in the country according to 247Sports. The Texas native has been making his rounds this summer to places like Michigan, Florida, Ole Miss, as well as the in-state Longhorns, but there are two programs Ojo says are neck and neck. Texas has long been favored in this race, but the Buckeyes have closed the gap and are pushing hard for a commitment from the coveted lineman. After Ojo finished his summer camp visits, Rivals recruiting analyst Sam Spiegelman gave a crystal ball prediction for Ojo to stay in the Lone Star State, saying, "There is a sense that Texas closed strong on this official visit and left a big enough impression on the elite OT ahead of his July commitment," Spiegelman said. "There is a strong sense that Ojo won't leave the state to play college football." Not so fast, my friend. Ojo is in Indianapolis this week for the Rivals Five-Star Challenge, where Spiegelman had a chance to follow up with the prized recruit, and it sounds like the decision isn't going to be that cut and dry. When asked about where his recruiting status stands, Ojo said, "I'd really say Texas and Ohio State (lead). Really just the atmosphere. The culture. Not only that. The opportunity to play early. I'd really say those two schools have really been pushing me throughout the recruiting process. Those are ultimately the two schools that are the biggest factor in my recruitment right now." He'd go on to talk about how close the race is between both programs and what will be the final factor, stating, "I'd say right now with the race, I'd say it's pretty even. I'd say there's no clear-cut leader right now. I'd say the decision will be made in the next couple of weeks. It really just depends." He finished by adding, "Really just seeing where the best fit for me and my family is. Really seeing what the future has in store for me." That's great news for Ryan Day and Ohio State. While Texas may still hold a slight lead being the home state team, the Buckeyes are really making an impression. It would be a massive win to get the young man to leave home, but it seems the Bucks are in as good a position as they could possibly be at this point, and it sounds like we'll have a decision sooner rather than later.
USA Today
16-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Texas Longhorns look to capitalize on star-studded recruiting weekend
Texas Longhorns look to capitalize on star-studded recruiting weekend The Texas Longhorns and coach Steve Sarkisian hosted a weekend of huge official visits. This was the second of three weekends in June for official visits and Texas just hosted one of the most star-studded in the nation. recruiting analyst Sam Spiegelman has the intel on several of the prospects that were on the 40 Acres in the past few days, including some predictions. Spiegelman predicts five-star OT Felix Ojo (Mansfield, TX) will commit to Texas. Last week, Ojo cancelled an official visit to Oklahoma before heading to Austin for the UT OV. "There is a sense that Texas closed strong on this official visit and left a big enough impression on the elite OT ahead of his July commitment," Spiegelman said. "There is a strong sense that Ojo wont leave the state to play college football." The Austin-based recruiting expert also projects five-star LB Xavier Griffin (Gainesville, GA) will end up a Longhorn too. "It's down to Texas and Alabama with a June 26 commitment on the horizon," Spiegelman said. "No team has come on stronger with the four-star EDGE than the Longhorns. There's a sense Texas made another step forward with Griffin and his mother back in Austin this weekend." Another elite prospect in Austin this weekend was four-star DB Samari Matthews (Cornelius, NC), who was on campus for the second time. "My experience in Austin was amazing -- from the staff and players to the energy of the city itself," Matthews told Rivals. "What excites me most about the chance to play for Coach Sark is knowing he pushes his players to be their best in every way -- both on and off the field. At Texas, I know I'll be challenged to grow into the best version of myself, which aligns with the goals I've set for my future." Texas' main competition for Matthews is South Carolina. "The opportunity to learn from Coach Orphey and Coach (Duane) Akina ... I got to do some board work with both of them and let's just say we had a time. That experience made the idea of becoming a Longhorn even more exciting," Matthews said. "I'm feeling really good. I got a good look at the vision they see for me. My comfort with Coach Sark and Coach O is high. Those are my guys. Austin is nice city for sure." Spiegelman says he's close to calling it for the Longhorns. Four-star OT Zaden Krempin (Prosper, TX) is emerging as a Texas lean. He tells Rivals UT is rising to the top of his list. "I'm a perfect fit here," Krempin said. "Texas is only doing 45 official visits. They told us how they only wanted to bring guys that fit their program." LSU and Texas A&M both made a good impression on the North Texas prospect, but the Longhorns knocked it out of the park with Krempin over the weekend. "It was incredible, he said. "Texas has something special happening here. You can just feel it. I got to see a detailed plan for me from the strength and development piece to the OL room. Overall, it was awesome from the moment we got here. It was a good time. Austin is a cool place." Four-star LB Brayden Rouse (Marietta, GA) was also in town this weekend. Spiegelman says Texas is trending with the blue-chip. "They did a great job making me a priority for them and showing that," Rouse said. "Texas impressed me." Texas is battling Tennessee of Rouse. "The visit was great," he said. "It was good for me to get my family on campus and see what the school has to offer. I was impressed on their presentation on how they see me fitting in their scheme and program. I also had a great time spending time with the coaches and continuing to strengthen those relationships ... Texas has always been a school I could potentially see myself going to." Four-star DL Bryce Perry-Wright (Buford, GA) was on the 40 Acres for the sixth time this weekend. He says Texas is at the top of his list with Texas A&M and Clemson. "The overall visit was great," the Georgia native said. "I really felt like I could see myself fitting in at Texas — not just as a player, but as a person. There was a strong sense of belonging being on campus this weekend. The energy was good and I could honestly picture myself there." Perry-Wright tells Rivals he's very comfortable with the coaches, the city of Austin and principles of the Texas program. "It's a system I feel like I'd thrive in," he continued. "Bonding with the players and coaches, and just being around everybody again was a real highlight. The city itself and the atmosphere around Austin are special and the overall vibe from the people I was around this weekend made a strong impression. They showed real belief in me and my ability to make an impact early. That meant a lot. The coaches made me feel welcomed, valued and like they truly want me to be a part of what they're building." Follow us on X/Twitter at @LonghornsWire.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Now PBS Is Censoring a Film About Free Speech
American Masters, an award-winning documentary series in its 39th season on PBS, promises to tell 'compelling, unvarnished stories' about the nation's most important cultural figures. The program's most recent story, though—Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, about the cartoonist-author of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust, and a self-described 'poster boy for books being censored'—seemed to need a bit more varnish on its approach to Donald Trump. In April, two weeks before it aired on PBS stations, a 90-second segment of the film in which Spiegelman referred to the president's 'smug and ugly mug' was cut from the film at the behest of public-media executives. (The details of this incident were first reported by Anthony Kaufman for Documentary magazine.) PBS has been under attack by the Trump administration since January. By the time Disaster Is My Muse was aired in shortened form, the network was already under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, and the White House had a plan to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which passes money on to PBS. 'Their attempt at preemptively staying out of the line of fire was absurd; it wasn't going to happen,' Spiegelman told me this week. 'It seems like it would be better to go out with dignity.' Alicia Sams, who co-produced the film, told me that she received a call from the executive producer of American Masters, Michael Kantor, at the beginning of April. It was less than a week after a contentious congressional hearing in which the network was accused of being a 'radical left-wing echo chamber' that is 'brainwashing and trans-ing children.' According to Sams, Kantor said that Disaster Is My Muse would need one further edit before it could be shown: The filmmakers had to remove a short sequence where Spiegelman reads aloud from the one of the few comic strips about Trump that he's ever published, in a zine associated with the Women's March in 2017. There was no opportunity for negotiation, Sams said. The filmmakers knew that if they refused, they would be in breach of contract and would have to repay the movie's license fee. 'It was not coming from Michael,' she told me. 'It was very clear: It was coming from PBS in D.C.' [Read: PBS pulled a film for political reasons, then changed its mind] Kantor deferred all questions to Lindsey Horvitz, the director of content marketing at WNET, the producer of American Masters and parent company of New York's flagship PBS station. (Sams told me that in her understanding, WNET leadership had agreed with PBS about the cut.) Horvitz provided The Atlantic with this statement: 'One section of the film was edited from the theatrical version as it was no longer in context today. The change was made to maintain the integrity and appropriateness of the content for broadcast at this time.' A PBS spokesperson said, 'We have not changed our long-standing editorial guidelines or practices this year.' (The Atlantic has a partnership with WETA, which receives funding from PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.) Molly Bernstein, who co-directed Disaster Is My Muse with Philip Dolin, said this was 'absurd.' She told me that the team had already been through discussions with PBS over how to make the film compliant with broadcast standards and practices. A few profanities are spoken in the film, and some images from Spiegelman's cartoons raised concerns, but the network said that these could stand as long as the film aired after 10 p.m., when laxer FCC rules apply. 'We were delighted that was an option,' Bernstein said. A bleeped-and-blurred version of the film would not have worked. 'It's about underground comics. It's about transgressive artwork.' The team did make one other change to the film, several months before its broadcast: Some material featuring Spiegelman's fellow comic-book artist Neil Gaiman was removed in January after a series of sexual-assault allegations against Gaiman were detailed in a cover story for New York magazine. (Gaiman denies that he 'engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.') The filmmakers say they did this on their own, to avoid distractions from the subject of the film. But they also said that Kantor told them PBS would likely have had that inclination too. In any case, to say the snipped-out material about Trump was 'no longer in context today' is simply false. Spiegelman's commitment to free speech is central to the film. So are his repeated warnings about incipient fascism in America. ('That's what I see everywhere I look now,' he says at one point.) They're also clearly relevant to the forced edit of the broadcast. Indeed, the censored clip was taken from an event involving Spiegelman in June 2022 called 'Forbidden Images Now,' which was presented in association with an exhibit of Philip Guston paintings that had itself been postponed for political reasons after George Floyd's murder, presumably on account of Guston's having made a motif of hooded Ku Klux Klansmen. [Read: Don't look away from Philip Guston's cartoonish paintings of Klansmen] Just a few months before that lecture, Spiegelman learned that Maus had been removed from the eighth-grade curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, on account of its rough language and a single panel showing the naked corpse of his mother following her suicide. 'The tendencies brought up by this frantic need to control children's thoughts,' Spiegelman told MSNBC's Art Velshi in 2023, are 'an echo of the book burnings of the 1930s in Germany.' The filmmakers told me that Spiegelman's free-speech run-in with the county school board was instrumental in persuading WNET to back Disaster Is My Muse. 'When Maus was banned, interest in Art and the relevance of his story increased,' Sams said. Only then did American Masters pledge its full support, licensing the film before it had even been completed, and supplying half its budget. In the lead-up to its broadcast, PBS also chose to highlight Spiegelman's focus on the First Amendment in its promotional materials. The network's webpage for Disaster Is My Muse describes him as 'a pioneer of comic arts, whose thought-provoking work reflects his ardent defense of free speech.' (Neither PBS nor WNET would explain how a decision had been made to censor footage from a documentary film that is in no small part about censorship.) A broader 'context' for the edit can be found in PBS's other recent efforts to adjust its programming in deference to political considerations. As previously reported in The Atlantic, not long before Kantor's call with Sams, PBS quietly shelved a different documentary film, Break the Game, that was set to air on April 7, apparently because it had a trans protagonist. The film, which is not political, was abruptly placed back on the schedule within two hours of my reaching out to PBS for comment. (The network did not respond to questions about why Break the Game's original airdate had been canceled.) If these efforts were meant to forestall pressure from the White House, they have roundly failed. Two weeks after Disaster Is My Muse aired—with its reference to Trump removed—the president attempted to dismiss three of five board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A few days after that, he issued an executive order directing the board to terminate all funding, both direct and indirect, to NPR and PBS. (Both moves are being challenged.) But just imagine how much harder the administration would be going after PBS if Trump had seen the clip about his 'smug and ugly mug'! 'This seems like volunteering to pull the trigger on the firing-squad gun,' Spiegelman told me. The end of Disaster Is My Muse includes some footage from a 2017 free-speech protest on the steps of the New York Public Library, where Spiegelman read out the lyrics of a Frank Zappa song: 'And I'm telling you, it can't happen here. Oh, darling, it's important that you believe me. Bop bop bop bop.' The political climate has only gotten worse since then, he said. 'There's no checks and balances on this. This is severe bullying and control, and it's only going to get worse.' Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
Now PBS Is Censoring a Film About Free Speech
American Masters, an award-winning documentary series in its 39th season on PBS, promises to tell 'compelling, unvarnished stories' about the nation's most important cultural figures. The program's most recent story, though— Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, about the cartoonist-author of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust, and a self-described 'poster boy for books being censored'—seemed to need a bit more varnish on its approach to Donald Trump. In April, two weeks before it aired on PBS stations, a 90-second segment of the film in which Spiegelman referred to the president's 'smug and ugly mug' was cut from the film at the behest of public-media executives. (The details of this incident were first reported by Anthony Kaufman for Documentary magazine.) PBS has been under attack by the Trump administration since January. By the time Disaster Is My Muse was aired in shortened form, the network was already under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, and the White House had a plan to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which passes money on to PBS. 'Their attempt at preemptively staying out of the line of fire was absurd; it wasn't going to happen,' Spiegelman told me this week. 'It seems like it would be better to go out with dignity.' Alicia Sams, who co-produced the film, told me that she received a call from the executive producer of American Masters, Michael Kantor, at the beginning of April. It was less than a week after a contentious congressional hearing in which the network was accused of being a 'radical left-wing echo chamber' that is 'brainwashing and trans-ing children.' According to Sams, Kantor said that Disaster Is My Muse would need one further edit before it could be shown: The filmmakers had to remove a short sequence where Spiegelman reads aloud from the one of the few comic strips about Trump that he's ever published, in a zine associated with the Women's March in 2017. There was no opportunity for negotiation, Sams said. The filmmakers knew that if they refused, they would be in breach of contract and would have to repay the movie's license fee. 'It was not coming from Michael,' she told me. 'It was very clear: It was coming from PBS in D.C.' Kantor deferred all questions to Lindsey Horvitz, the director of content marketing at WNET, the producer of American Masters and parent company of New York's flagship PBS station. (Sams told me that in her understanding, WNET leadership had agreed with PBS about the cut.) Horvitz provided The Atlantic with this statement: 'One section of the film was edited from the theatrical version as it was no longer in context today. The change was made to maintain the integrity and appropriateness of the content for broadcast at this time.' A PBS spokesperson said, 'We have not changed our long-standing editorial guidelines or practices this year.' (The Atlantic has a partnership with WETA, which receives funding from PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.) Molly Bernstein, who co-directed Disaster Is My Muse with Philip Dolin, said this was 'absurd.' She told me that the team had already been through discussions with PBS over how to make the film compliant with broadcast standards and practices. A few profanities are spoken in the film, and some images from Spiegelman's cartoons raised concerns, but the network said that these could stand as long as the film aired after 10 p.m., when laxer FCC rules apply. 'We were delighted that was an option,' Bernstein said. A bleeped-and-blurred version of the film would not have worked. 'It's about underground comics. It's about transgressive artwork.' The team did make one other change to the film, several months before its broadcast: Some material featuring Spiegelman's fellow comic-book artist Neil Gaiman was removed in January after a series of sexual-assault allegations against Gaiman were detailed in a cover story for New York magazine. (Gaiman denies that he 'engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.') The filmmakers say they did this on their own, to avoid distractions from the subject of the film. But they also said that Kantor told them PBS would likely have had that inclination too. In any case, to say the snipped-out material about Trump was 'no longer in context today' is simply false. Spiegelman's commitment to free speech is central to the film. So are his repeated warnings about incipient fascism in America. ('That's what I see everywhere I look now,' he says at one point.) They're also clearly relevant to the forced edit of the broadcast. Indeed, the censored clip was taken from an event involving Spiegelman in June 2022 called 'Forbidden Images Now,' which was presented in association with an exhibit of Philip Guston paintings that had itself been postponed for political reasons after George Floyd's murder, presumably on account of Guston's having made a motif of hooded Ku Klux Klansmen. Just a few months before that lecture, Spiegelman learned that Maus had been removed from the eighth-grade curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, on account of its rough language and a single panel showing the naked corpse of his mother following her suicide. 'The tendencies brought up by this frantic need to control children's thoughts,' Spiegelman told MSNBC's Art Velshi in 2023, are 'an echo of the book burnings of the 1930s in Germany.' The filmmakers told me that Spiegelman's free-speech run-in with the county school board was instrumental in persuading WNET to back Disaster Is My Muse. 'When Maus was banned, interest in Art and the relevance of his story increased,' Sams said. Only then did American Masters pledge its full support, licensing the film before it had even been completed, and supplying half its budget. In the lead-up to its broadcast, PBS also chose to highlight Spiegelman's focus on the First Amendment in its promotional materials. The network's webpage for Disaster Is My Muse describes him as 'a pioneer of comic arts, whose thought-provoking work reflects his ardent defense of free speech.' (Neither PBS nor WNET would explain how a decision had been made to censor footage from a documentary film that is in no small part about censorship.) A broader 'context' for the edit can be found in PBS's other recent efforts to adjust its programming in deference to political considerations. As previously reported in The Atlantic, not long before Kantor's call with Sams, PBS quietly shelved a different documentary film, Break the Game, that was set to air on April 7, apparently because it had a trans protagonist. The film, which is not political, was abruptly placed back on the schedule within two hours of my reaching out to PBS for comment. (The network did not respond to questions about why Break the Game 's original airdate had been canceled.) If these efforts were meant to forestall pressure from the White House, they have roundly failed. Two weeks after Disaster Is My Muse aired—with its reference to Trump removed—the president attempted to dismiss three of five board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A few days after that, he issued an executive order directing the board to terminate all funding, both direct and indirect, to NPR and PBS. (Both moves are being challenged.) But just imagine how much harder the administration would be going after PBS if Trump had seen the clip about his 'smug and ugly mug'! 'This seems like volunteering to pull the trigger on the firing-squad gun,' Spiegelman told me. The end of Disaster Is My Muse includes some footage from a 2017 free-speech protest on the steps of the New York Public Library, where Spiegelman read out the lyrics of a Frank Zappa song: 'And I'm telling you, it can't happen here. Oh, darling, it's important that you believe me. Bop bop bop bop.' The political climate has only gotten worse since then, he said. 'There's no checks and balances on this. This is severe bullying and control, and it's only going to get worse.'
