Chris Becker

@chrisbecker.bsky.social

5748 Followers 1606 Following

Associate Professor in Film, Television, and Theatre and the Sport, Media, & Culture Minor at University of Notre Dame. Working on a local TV history project: https://sites.nd.edu/boc-project/

Photo of a cute (redundant) cat sitting in a very large Chewy box and looking at the camera like she knows this is basic cat shit but what else can she do, right?
Screenshot of text from the article: “Brouillette was initially rejected by military recruiters because of his mental health diagnoses, but recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, his immediate relative said. He was eventually able to enlist.”
Screenshot of an email: The text: "Hi Chris -- Wow! Thanks for sharing these photos. Corri and her sister are awesome. I love that tattoo, and here's the shot that inspired it:" Image of Big Bird facing the camera, rural road behind him, street sign reading "No Thru Road" on the right
Salute to America Immediate Evacuation
Screenshot of text from the essay: That’s the thing nobody tells you about these long fights. The arc doesn’t move in a straight line. The Boy Scouts changed, not because any court told them to, but because people came to understand how wrong it was to exclude a kid for who he was. That understanding built slowly, over the years, because people like you refused to disappear. Someday, I believe, America will understand with the same clarity why excluding transgender kids is wrong. When that day comes, it will be because of what you built. The record you made. The five years you actually competed and showed everyone watching that the sky did not fall. Today’s ruling will never erase that.
Low-angle shot of a sleepy cat on cat condo platform, head resting on a paw
"The National Memorial for Peace and Justice names more than four thousand victims of lynching on steel monuments organized by county, and a duplicate set of those monuments lies on the grounds outside, available for counties to claim. Most have not come. That unclaimed field is itself an argument, patient and silent, about which memories a community chooses to carry forward and which it prefers to leave on the ground."
Screenshot from the post: "much has been said about what this means For Democracy, and of course the answer is nothing good. it is scary and bad and i’m obviously enraged that 200 excellent jobs, many of them union, have been deleted from the entertainment landscape. i’m furious that my brilliant friends were putting out popular, quality work and are now needlessly adrift in an industry that’s eroding at alarming speed. but i spend a lot of time being mad — occupational hazard. we can put that on the shelf for later. i can’t let my fury for what should still be eclipse my gratitude for what was."
Screenshot of the bottom of a Google doc, where the evil Gemini icon rests
Screenshot from the post with this text: This will be one of Elon Musk's legacies, and the most consequential one for human life. A man who talks about saving our species condemned millions to death because he could not discern reality from a paranoid fantasy. While DOGE massively exaggerated its contributions — remember when the Trump administration said it cared about deficits? — it should not be allowed to minimize its greatest one, which is to dramatically increase human misery and death among the most vulnerable. No-one associated with that organization should be allowed to wash away the the stain of death.
Screenshot of Santos from THE PITT, with text of her quote overlaid: "I just think, 'What's the stupidest thing this person could have done?" and assume they did it.
Low-angle photo of a cat on the top of a cat tree taking a right-pawed swipe at the camera. His name is Coley, and he is a scamp.
A livestream screenshot of the four astronauts on NASA's Artemis II mission in the Orion spacecraft. They're all laughing and seemingly having the time of their lives.
Photo of tree branches up against the night sky with some accents of light from nearby houses
A horizontally stacked trio of photos featuring 1980s Chicago Bears icons Walter Payton and Jim McMahon, on a wall between a pair of karaoke room doors
No Kings March photo. A handwritten sign says “The power of the people is greater than the people in power” as the crowd walks in front of the Trump building in Chicago
Screenshot of text from the article: “Mark, like much of the extraction class, is only allowed to fail upward, swaddled in the bold innovative mythologies constructed by the American access press and the numerous orbital sub-economies invested in the pretense. Ok Obviously Mark's job isn't being creative, interesting, or good. It's being deftly full of shit in just such a way as to convince Wall Street that the delusion of permanent quarterly growth at impossible-to-manage-scale is a real and useful thing, even if the underlying products being sold are cumbersome turds most people hate using.”
Screenshot of two skeets. Top one: Bruce Arthur @brucearthur.bsk... • 7m Mariners fans must be smoking cigarettes like the file photo of Homer Bottom one: Bruce Arthur @brucearthur.bs... • 34s Here's the thing with sports: when you're in the high-pressure playoff spaces, it might feel like hell. But that's the greatest thing about sports fandom: you get to feel it. You get to live and die. Feel it, live it, embrace it. You might never forget it, and how many things are like that?
Screenshot of text: I am sick to death of this — of the tech industry deciding it can do what it wants without consequences. Everything is a subscription, everything is harder to use and enshittified. Everything is built on something that was stolen or degraded. So-called AI – which is not intelligent at all – is being shoved into everything, and makes nothing better (quite the reverse). “Move fast and break things” now extends to the reputations and identities of respected professionals and creative people. And you have the nerve to presume we should all put up with every outrage, with every act of destruction, with every theft. I don’t. I won’t. I don’t condone this. I don’t condone what Grammarly has done, to myself or anyone being touted as an expert on your site. I don’t condone any of these slop machines stealing people’s work without compensation and filling people’s minds with shitty art or crap writing that is full of inaccuracies.
Black ball cap with lettering that reads “Currently thinking about Heated Rivalry and political revolution”
Quote tweet: @AntiClimaco on X.com Trying to scan the QR code on the ICE agent choking me but first I have to watch a 10 second FanDuel ad Embedded tweet: @AndrewSolender Scoop in here: Rep. Ritchie Torres introducing a bill that would require ICE officers to wear QR codes that you can scan to get their full name, badge number and other identifying info....
Pooper scooper
Screenshot of a paragraph from the article: “The federal surge into Minneapolis reflects a series of mistaken MAGA assumptions. The first is the belief that diverse communities aren't possible: "Social bonds form among people who have something in common," Vance said in a speech last July. "If you stop importing millions of foreigners into the country, you allow social cohesion to form naturally" Vance's remarks are the antithesis to the neighborism of the Twin Cities, whose people do not share the narcissism of being capable of loving only those who are exactly like them.”
Screenshot of posts: Quote post: D(oc) Oc(k) @frittersandclam.... • 15m this happened to me during a week long power outage. my husband is T1D and we needed refrigerator for insulin specifically but also it was late summer and so hot. me saying repeatedly "but you know there is a week long power outage" didn't move them at all. i was furious. Embedded post: Maryn McKenna @maryn... • 10h In America, where irony is dead, a hotel chain uses a policy denying shelter to local people, for fear of accidentally housing homeless persons... To deny a reservation to the author of a much-lauded book on how American economic unfairness forces working people into homelessness. Immediately preceding post: treb @treblaw.bsky.social • 15m what sick disgusting company or individual at said company are we going to learn about today 21 019R乙 iamelle @ Miamellehouie net • 24m
Cat staring daggers at another cat
Screenshot of a paragraph from the article: “Andrew, for his part, was unable to adopt the performative allyship that had become expected. "I always thought I was an effeminate nerd growing up... but my way of expressing myself now puts me on the most masculine end of men in media," he told me. "I started to pick up on the fact that there wasn't much room for people who even speak in my timbre."”
Cat standing at a heat vent with his face up against the grill
THE ONION Al Chatbot That Only Responds 'Huh' Valued At $200 Billion TOOL REPEATS SINGLE-SYLLABLE EXPRESSION OF MILD INTEREST PALO ALTO, CA-Hailing the new product as a "game changer" in the development of large language models, Silicon Valley insiders confirmed Tuesday that an AI chatbot that only responds "huh" had been valued at $200 billion. "The new HmmAI chatbot is like nothing we've seen before, able to answer 'huh' to text and image-based inputs with a muted indifference indistinguishable from that of an actual human being," said industry analyst Debra Nelson, adding that the new chatbot had already replaced the flesh-and-blood therapists of tens of thousands of users. "HmmAI is at the bleeding edge of artificial intel-ligence, responding to prompts about recipe ideas, ancient history, or even advanced nuclear physics with the word 'huh' in just a fraction of a second. This chatbot is going to revolutionize productivity and is worth every penny of its $200 billion valuation. Having a whole team of experts who exclusively say 'huh' right in your pocket isn't just science fiction anymore, and if you don't incorporate HmmAl into your company's workflow right now, you're going to be left behind." At press time, HmmAI representatives were downplaying allegations that the chatbot continually saying "huh" had convinced hundreds of teenagers to kill themselves.”
A screenshot from the post: “I want you to understand, regardless of your politics, the historical danger of a secret police. What happens when a militia is deployed in our neighborhoods and against our own people. Left unchecked their mandate will grow; the boundaries of acceptable identity and speech will shrink. I want you to think about elections in this future. I want you to understand that every issue you care about-any hope of participatory democracy-is downstream of this.”
Mostly a photo of a tree, but if you look closely, there’s a bicycle in there
At the Dr. Oz presser, Oz and others in the background attending to someone who passed out, while Trump stands at his desk, facing away from the drama, looking annoyed he’s not the center of attention
Cat on a catio staring intensely at the camera, ears back and eyes wide, with an out of focus window screen in the foreground looking like prison bars
AI search result: “The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, not in a lake.”
Photo of two people, and I’m sorry I can’t describe more because I’m crying too hard
Photo of a whiteboard with a long handwritten list of recent TV drama titles on the right side. In the middle is written "Bundlé Savé," a catchphrase from an insurance ad. Across the top starting on left corner, the outer plastic layer of the whiteboard is starting pull away from the surface, crumbling over another set of handwritten notes detailing storytelling elements like relationships and conflict.
• Google Al Overview The Chicago Cubs' 2025 roster has several Black players, including notable stars like Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki. The roster also features other players of color, although the team is predominantly white. Black Players on the 2025 Cubs: • Kyle Tucker: Acquired from the Houston Astros, Tucker is expected to be the Cubs' everyday right fielder and a key hitter. • Seiya Suzuki: The Japanese outfielder is also a significant part of the Cubs' lineup. o • Other Players of Color: While the majority of the team's stars are white, the Cubs roster also includes players of color from other parts of the world.
Screenshot of an article about Trump admin attacks on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting where the article largely blocked by pop-up ads and subscription pleas
Bottom half of the image is a black stone plaque that reads "Cancer is the most curable of all chronic diseases." There are a few streaks of white bird poop on it. The top half of the image is slightly out of focus, shows the lawn of the park and Chicago skyscrapers in the background.
Cat sitting upright under a dining room chair with wary look on her face
Cat crouching next to a phonograph and staring intently at a record
Screenshot from an AI-generated image in The Wrap. Woman with distorted facial features and arms.
Cat with eyes half-closed and tongue in mid-lick
Bill Siemering, after reading from NPR’s original mission statement, which he authored: The idea that people need to be informed is fundamental for us to survive as a democracy. We have to have intelligent citizens. I might say that now, one of the dangers of our country’s democracy is so much public ignorance in our society. Now some people might argue that, well, a journalistic enterprise shouldn’t be that kind of thing, but I was believing that this is more than just a passive transmitter of the news of the day, that it has a larger mission than that.
Map of the Gulf of Mexico overlaid with the text "Gulf of Nandor the Relentless"
Screenshot of an excerpt from a Notre Dame student newspaper editorial that reads: I hold the words “force for good” so close to my chest that they are practically embedded in my consciousness. I humbly implore you: show us, your Notre Dame family, that our fears are acknowledged and rational. Show us that despite the seeds of polarization being sewn, we do belong here, because our existence is essential to the health of this community. Please, show me that my claim to being a force for good matters. Sincerely, AnnahMarie Behn class of 2025 Feb. 1
Rosie the Riveter rolling up her sleeve and a text bubble with the words "We Can Do It!"
Cat peering from behind a TV with an accusatory look on her face
Shot of a cat looking at the camera with a little uncertainty, eyes and whiskers wide
Cat sleeping alongside a window as the sun shines in
A cat named Coley sniffing the head of a bumble
Three kittens. Just picture extreme cuteness.
Kylee Kazenski portraying Notre Dame’s leprechaun mascot running with a flag during Notre Dame’s game against Pitt
Far Side cartoon: store with Bob’s Pets sign in the window, in the foreground a fish in a bowl with sign that says Piranha $29.95, cat with peg legs for front paws in the background.