THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2020 

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Elderly British Chap

CNN held an uplifting interview with an elderly British gentleman who shared his sunny outlook while retelling the story of how he received the coronavirus vaccine.

Cyril Vanier was in London to report on the Pfizer vaccine rollout program in Great Britain, and he spoke with 91-year-old Martin Kenyon, who said he received the inoculation earlier in the day. Kenyon said he called the hospital to ask if they had the vaccine, then he walked Vanier through his day before he finally got his shot.

“It didn’t hurt at all,” Kenyon said. “I didn’t know the needle had gone in until it had come out. It was painless.”

Kenyon went on by sharing his “thrilled” feelings now that he’s protected from the virus, plus he expressed his eager anticipation for telling his family that he’ll get to see them in person for Christmas.

“No point in dying now when I have lived this long, is there?” Kenyon said.

As Vanier threw the feed back to CNN Newsroom while reflecting on the significance of the moment, Jim Sciutto and Poppy Harlow shared their own delight over Kenyon’s story. Sciutto called his words “a life mantra” while Harlow exclaimed “That was a highlight. Can you ask for anything better?”

This was great TV, and the kind of heartwarming news we can all use.

MEDIA LOSER:
@AZGOP

The Arizona Republican Party escalated its rhetoric on the election results this morning by urging people to fight to the death on behalf of President Donald Trump's attempts to dispute the outcome.

The organization, headed by Chairwoman Kelli Ward, had previously raised eyebrows at the end of November when they tweeted "DO NOT CERTIFY A FALSE ELECTION!" over a week ago, when Arizona was decided for Joe Biden.

Ward continues to dispute the certification of the results in court, even though Trump’s own legal team has never been able to produce evidence for his claim that the 2020 general election was tampered with by mass voter fraud.

On Tuesday, the Arizona Republican Party cranked things up a few notches when they retweeted “Stop the Steal” advocate Ali Akbar for saying “I am willing to give my life for this fight.”

“He is. Are you?” The party asked. Then their official account tweeted a clip from Rambo with the caption, “This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something." It was later deleted.

Prominent Arizonan Republican Meghan McCain took notice, along with most of Twitter, and weighed in, offering to "jump in and take over" the @AZGOP account for the day, "so you're not nationally trending for embarrassing reasons."

The A-Block

January? 😩

The Trump legal team just put out a press release that made clear they have no intention of giving up the fight on the results of the 2020 general election, which they are baselessly contesting.

"The only fixed day in the U.S. Constitution is the inauguration of the President on January 20 at noon," says the statement from Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis about the safe harbor deadline and their ignoring it.

Also...

Now they both have tested positive for coronavirus. And they've been around a lot of people, including at White House parties.

However...

Don't ask about those parties. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade might seethe at you.

Vaccine!!

The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, met “prescribed success criteria” for public distribution.

Which means it could begin shipping as soon as this weekend.

‘We Must Lead With Science’

Marking his first appearance as an official member of President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team, Dr. Anthony Fauci accepted a position as Biden’s chief medical advisor on Covid-19.

Meanwhile...

President Donald Trump continued to falsely declare victory in the election on Tuesday as he said states and even the Supreme Court should show the “courage” to “do the right thing.”

Trump stayed on message during his vaccine summit Tuesday, until NBC News’ Peter Alexander asked about how the distribution process will pass to the next administration and asked why members of the Joe Biden transition team were not part of the summit.

We’re going to have to see who the next administration is,” Trump responded.

Saudi Tourism

A CNN editor is taking heat after publishing a story praising Saudi Arabia’s recent reforms, and describing what could become some of the country’s notable tourist attractions.

In a piece published Saturday for CNN Travel, senior international correspondent Nic Robertson described life in Saudi under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as having “a sense of lightness, a freedom to make choices.”

Robertson’s story was decried by some on Twitter, particularly in light of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, and the ongoing mistreatment of human rights activists.

"These better literally give you new ears."

High price tags are nothing new when dealing with Apple products. But even by the tech giant’s typically expensive standards, their latest offering costs a fortune.Apple, on Tuesday, announced the release of AirPods Max — a set of over-the-ear headphones expanding on their popular earbuds. The bells and whistles have audio geeks salivating. HOWEVER...

“AirPods Max combine a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software to power computational audio for a breakthrough listening experience with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and spatial audio,” the company said, in a statement.

The headphones, though, will retail at a staggering $550 — which far exceeds high-end offerings from rivals such as Bose and Sony.

That price point is not sitting well with prospective consumers.



Must See Clip

John Lennon

Forty years ago today, December 8, music legend and former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed by deranged fan Mark David Chapman outside of his New York City apartment. Lennon was only 40 years old when he was assassinated.

Here’s how the media covered the breaking news of Lennon’s murder.

Links We Like

Don't allow 'vaccine politics' to delay saving lives
- Mark Penn, via The Hill
COVID-19 hit the working class hardest — just when it was finally doing better
- Rich Lowry, via New York Post

Will Mitch McConnell finally bend on coronavirus relief?
- Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann, via Slate

The REAL reason Americans aren’t quarantining.
- Olga Khazan, via The Atlantic
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