THE DAILY NEWSLETTER -THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2022

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
FNC's Jacqui Heinrich

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich tangled Wednesday afternoon over whether the White House is "blaming" Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for inflation.

Inflation is at 40-year high record levels, as anyone who makes purchases well knows. President Joe Biden - who is the president - and his administration have previously argued that the pandemic, American buying habits, Republicans, and Russia's Vladimir Putin are culpable. In fact, the president has recently taken to calling it "Putin's Price Hike."

Elsewhere in the briefing Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence asked Psaki if President Biden "acknowledges any responsibility" for inflation, and Psaki brought up several of those factors in her answer.

In a blistering statement earlier in the week, Psaki added the Texas governor to that list, blasting him for additional truck inspections at the border and connecting them to inflation and supply chain issues. Heinrich turned to that statement in her own inflation question.

"You had mentioned in that statement that the truck inspections have led — that Governor Abbott has been conducting — have led to disruptions for the food and automobile supply chains and rising prices for families," she asked. "So is the White House blaming Greg Abbott for inflation?"

Psaki's answer went into detail on the reasons behind the statement, saying, "I think we’re trying to state the facts of what his — another political stunt that we’re seeing happen and the impact of it."

The comprehensive answer demonstrates how effective that question was. The job of the press corps is to do exactly what Heinrich did. She asked a probing question in a direct way and got a specific answer on an issue that affects every American.

That's how this all works.

MEDIA LOSER:
CUNY Prof. Jeff Jarvis

Blogger, political commentator, and CUNY journalism professor Jeff Jarvis drew a tremendous wave of public mockery and criticism when he said that Twitter today, in the wake of Elon Musk's massive purchase offer, feels like being in Germany on the cusp of Hitler's regime. 

Jarvis was among the many, many, many users who reacted to and commented on Musk's bid to buy out Twitter completely. Musk has been a vocal critic of Twitter, and in his filing with the SEC laid into management, as detailed in our A -Block below..

Many libertarian, center right, and right wing pundits have high expectations that Musk will reform Twitter's sometimes capricious moderation policies, which they say is a huge enhancement and protection of free speech. 

Among Democrats, the left, and the media, Musk's move to take over Twitter is being treated as not just unwelcome, but hostile to the very concepts of Democracy, as hyperbolically stated by the Washington Post's Max Boot

But it was the journalism professor's dramatic Weimar tweet that really stirred up a hornet's nest..

“Today on Twitter feels like the last evening in a Berlin nightclub at the twilight of Weimar Germany,” he wrote.

Contra the Boot backlash, Jarvis's detractors crossed party lines. Voluminously.

The professor then tried to clap back at the claps back, to limited success.

Nazi comparisons are de rigeur of late in politics. Although, usually they aren't trotted out for the apprehension that someone might reduce speech strictures.

However poetically one attempts to couch their Godwin's Law proof, it's rarely well received. That's another truism, whether you're a professor of journalism, a Kennedy, or even Elon Musk.

The A-Block

Elon Musk

He polled Twitter about Twitter and free speech. He became the largest single shareholder. He did not join the board. And on Thursday morning, Elon Musk made an offer.

An over $41,000,000,000 offer.

The SEC filing was first noted by Bloomberg, and soon confirmed and shared on Twitter by Musk. In it, he explained that he "invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy."

He also expressed a lack of confidence in its current leadership adding “I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

The full a devastating assessment.


🇺🇦 FOR LATEST UKRAINE COVERAGE CLICK HERE


In Other News...

Tennessee Lawmaker Points to Hitler as an Inspiration for the Homeless: He Led 'A Life That Got Him in the History Books'

CNN's Brianna Keilar Sobs During Report on How Many Children Have Been Killed in Ukraine

'Chris Wallace Confronts Biden’s Sister on Whether Hunter’s High Profile Gigs Were About ‘Influence on Joe’

RATINGS: April 12 - Bolduan Beats Maddow in Demo

Must See Clip

Mouthpiece to the Face

The Charlotte Hornets will be heading to the off-season early after getting demolished by the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday, 132-103, as the entire team struggled to break down the 2021 Eastern Conference finalists.

One of those Hornets, Miles Bridges, took the loss a bit harder than his teammates, as he was ejected with a little over six minutes remaining in the game after arguing with a referee over a goaltending call.

Bridges had to be escorted off the court by Hornets staffers before his frustrations finally erupted from the home crowd noise, chucking his mouthpiece into the stands where it pelted a young female bystander.

The incident went viral as Bridges immediately took to social media postgame to apologize to the young Hawks fan.

Links We Like

The Press Won’t Claw Back Its Credibility Until It Admits Why It Buried The Story.
- Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., Wall Street Journal
Sunset Park Won’t Feel the Same After This
- Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic
Jamie Dimon Sees "Storm Clouds On The Horizon"
-  Matt Phillips, Axios
How Twitter Beclowns the American Elite
- David French, The Dispatch
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