gadfly

A gadfly candidate for mayor of Chicago, Lar Daly, secured a quirky FCC ruling.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026

The publication was founded in 1955 by the legendary gadfly William F. Buckley Jr. as a salon for the various right-leaning fraternities in American life: fire-eating libertarians, orthodox Catholics, conspiratorial anti-communists.

From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2025

But, in a new case, one gadfly is barred from going to meetings altogether.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2025

For decades, he also relished his role as a brutally insulting critic — sometimes of the bands he worked with — and a gadfly who pushed uncomfortable buttons about race, politics and sex.

From New York Times ● May 14, 2024

Concluding that economics, not politics, held the key to black success in America, Moore started a new career as a corporate gadfly, disrupting stockholders' meetings with pointed questions about racial policies and hiring practices.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Exxon Mobil’s action against Arjuna and Follow This opens a new chapter in the long battle between corporate managements and shareholder gadflies.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2024

As is quite common for these kinds of third-party gadflies, Oliver has made a career out of running unsuccessfully in multiple federal elections.

From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2024

There are always third party gadflies in presidential races and they can have an effect.

From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2023

Working the polls has long been something that retirees did, along with nice church ladies, neighborhood busybodies, local political gadflies and civics geeks.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2022

I want to grow to be more like an eagle that wings its way out of the habitat of gadflies, and less like a trembling hare pursued by hounds.

From Rosemary and Rue by Amber