THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Chris Wallace

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faced a grilling on CNN Sunday morning, as Dana Bash questioned her for over 20 minutes on school re-openings this fall.

But despite that marathon, it was Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace re who took the gold for his interview with DeVos. DeVos has said that, with some exceptions here or there, schools "should be fully operational and full open in the fall." 

Wallace asked what exactly that means. He showed her the many objections to returning to full normal school, to which she replied that there is "nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous."

President Donald Trump tweeted last week that he disagrees with the CDC's "very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools" as the pandemic continues.  Wallace went through a raft of CDC guidelines one by one, including washing hands and maintaining social distance, before asking the Secretary of Education "is that tough, expensive, and impractical?”

Wallace pressed on several other points, too, including DeVos own comparison to other countries.

Naturally DeVos' answers were dancers. But the challenges for the Fox audience were an invaluable example of good journalism.
 

MEDIA LOSER:
Blake Neff
(the artist formerly known as Tucker Carlson)

Top writer for Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight resigned after it was revealed on Friday that he had been posting viciously racist, sexist, and homophobic comments on an online forum using a pseudonym.

Fox News writer Blake Neff was posting those comments anonymously on an internet message board for years, and the posts coincided with his time top writer for Carlson. There were even topic overlaps. Neff had been working as the lead writer for the show since 2016 after coming from the conservative website The Daily Caller, which was co-founded by Carlson.

“We want to make abundantly clear that Fox News Media strongly condemns this horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace wrote in a memo condemning the remarks

Fox's Howard Kurtz brought it up on Sunday, reading the memo on MediaBuzz and condemning the content as "very ugly stuff."

But denials and resignations are never the end of the story in a media-losing moment, as this Washington Post article illustrates perfectly. Or this one, from The Nation.

The A-Block

Attacking Fauci

Over the weekend, the White House sent out a statement to multiple media outlets trying to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci — one of the top members of the White House’s own coronavirus task force.

On Sunday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino publicly trashed Fauci on Facebook, calling him "cowardly."

On Monday, President Donald Trump retweeted a former game show host who claimed “Everyone is lying” about the coronavirus in order to hurt Trump’s reelection chances and stifle the U.S. economy. He then retweeted Dr. Mark Young pushing a conspiracy theory about Dr. Anthony Fauci:

CNN’s John Berman brings up an important point: “I’m at a loss for how this saves a single life.” 

Speaking of Trump's Twitter...

He attacked Fox News some more this morning, calling the network a “disaster” after having spent a solid chunk of time live tweeting Fox and Friends.

The Washington [blank]

The NFL's Washington Redskins are expected to announce a team name change on Monday.

‘My Heart Is Pounding Out Of My Chest’ 

Self-described “theme park journalist” Carlye Wisel filed a harrowing report from the lines at Disney World this weekend. A fascinating video and thread.

At Long Mask

After months of refusing to wear a mask, President Trump finally donned one to visit Walter Reed Hospital.  The president was spotted wearing what appeared to be a dark navy fabric mask custom-made for him, with the presidential seal on one side as he walked through the military hospital accompanied by several staffers, in a planned visit to wounded combat veterans being treated there.

The campaign then spun it like he was leading the way.

"delete, and I cannot emphasize this enough, your account"

Chance the Rapper took to Twitter Monday morning to attack presumptive democratic nominee Joe Biden and throw his presidential support toward Kanye West. He was, you may imagine, roasted.

Texas Lt. Gov. Loses It 

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick went on a full-throttle TEAR on Monday, ripping Democrats, Black Lives Matter, and the #DefundThePolice movement.



Seriously, he went into overdrive.

"I think we’re missing the point.”

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley warned in an interview on CNBC that the NBA’s initiatives for social justice are “turning into a circus” and that players are focusing more on nicknames on the back of their jerseys instead of “trying to do some good stuff.”

Must See Clip

What the **** did he just say!?

Steve Harvey went viral for his reaction to Bruce Smith’s absurd answer on Celebrity Family Feud from Sunday night.

Smith, an 11-time Pro Bowl defensive end for the Buffalo Bills, struggled to respond a hypothetical question about Peter Pan’s Captain Hook when his first answer was already taken.

When an NFL Hall of Famer says “penis” on television, it’s hard to keep your cool. Steve Harvey did not succeed.

Links We Like

Xu Zhangrun and the Chinese Communist Party’s Betrayal of Confucius
- via National Review
‘I Couldn’t Do Anything’: The Virus and an E.R. Doctor’s Suicide
- via New York Times
A New Understanding of Herd Immunity: The number is not fixed. We can change it.
- via The Atlantic
Trump Frustrated With Campaign Manager Parscale Amid Falling Polls
- via Washington Post
The Case for Reopening Schools
- via The Morning Jolt
Racist NFL Franchise Washington Redskins Dead at 87
- via The Root
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