| |  | MEDIA WINNER:
Seung Min Kim
Washington Post White House reporter Seung Min Kim found herself at the center of an online controversy after the Huffington Post's Igor Bobic tweeted a photo of her showing Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) a 2017 tweet from Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget.
Tanden's confirmation is looking like it's on increasingly thin ice in a closely divided Senate and with moderate Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announcing he would not vote for her. Tanden, a longtime Democratic political operative and activist, has posted a number of insulting tweets over the years, including the one involving Murkowski.
The photo of Kim showing Murkowski that tweet sparked an ugly wave of criticism that was “racist, sexist, and ill-informed" and "a bad faith effort at intimidation," as a WaPo statement defending her described it.
"What she did was basic journalism," said WaPo national editor Steven Ginsburg. "In reporting about Tanden’s tweet, she asked Murkowski for comment. Murkowski had not seen the tweet, so Seung Min showed it to her. This is standard practice. If the subject of a story is not aware of the information they are being asked to comment on, reporters share it with them. This only makes sense and is the fair and responsible thing to do."
Kim has responded to the kerfuffle by keeping her head up and continuing to do her job, as she should, and has won the praise of a wide selection of her peers in the political media world. To quote Taylor Swift, "haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate," but Kim isn't letting them get her down. |
|
|
 | MEDIA LOSER:
Deroy Murdock
Fox News Contributor and National Review editor Deroy Murdock was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), being held this week in Orlando, Florida, and during a panel discussion regarding the 2020 election, Murdock blamed the judges who rejected dozens of lawsuits by former President Donald Trump as being responsible for the "chaos" that ensued.
“I think the judges didn’t want to get involved,” said Murdock, and that “they didn’t do their jobs." He then compared their inactions to an umpire during the bottom of the ninth inning of a seventh game of the World Series who refused to call a game-winning slide at home plate.
“Rather than making a good call or bad call, he doesn’t make a call, and what happens, the fans in the stands start fighting with each other, and chaos ensues,” he continued.
Murdock has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown and an MBA from NYU, but he did not go to law school and is not a lawyer. His opinion regarding legal precedent is essentially worthless.
The dozens of loser lawsuits that Trump and his allies used to attempt to overthrow the election were tossed out of court for good reasons, such as lacking standing, improper jurisdiction, and a repeated failure to allege evidence that could support their claims. Many of those judges were Republican appointees, some by Trump himself, and several issued clearly-worded, blunt opinions demolishing Trump's cases.
A judge's duty is to uphold the law, not assuage the egos of those angry about an election. The judges are in no way responsible for any "chaos." |
|
|
|
|  |
| CPAC, Florida edition CPAC kicked off in the Sunshine State on Thursday, and the organizers are having trouble encouraging attendees to follow the host hotel's rules regarding face masks, getting boos and jeers in response. “I know, I know, it’s not the most fun,” CPAC planner Carly Conley said.
CNN's Jim Acosta didn't fare much better, being greeted by chants of "CNN sucks!" and then getting heckled by a reporter from The Federalist over the network's lack of coverage of recent scandals regarding Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), brother of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
To be fair, it's not true that CNN hasn't covered Cuomo's recent troubles at all, but a review of the station transcripts does show that they've spent a lot less time on the topic than Fox News.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spent some of his time on stage slapping back at former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), who reportedly quipped during his audiobook recording that Cruz should "go f*** [himself]."
"Who's John Boehner?" Cruz snarked, commenting that what Boehner had asked him to do was "anatomically impossible."
Cruz's attempt at a joke that Orlando was "awesome," but not as "nice" as Cancun flopped, with many Twitter users calling it in poor taste considering the dozens of Texans who died and many more whose homes were destroyed by pipes bursting in the freezing weather.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) declared himself a proud Florida Man and threw some sharp insults at Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who is persona non grata among Trumplicans for voting to impeach the former president.
Follow Mediaite's coverage of CPAC 2021 here.
Sending a message
The U.S. launched an airstrike against a site used by Iranian-backed militias in Syria, with multiple military observers noting that it was a targeted effort to send a message to Iran in reaction to their own recent rocket attacks against American bases and contractors.
The airstrikes were not universally lauded, drawing bipartisan criticism from libertarian former Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
McConnell caves
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had a rough day with the media on Thursday, drawing scorn for enthusiastically saying he would "absolutely" support Trump if he were the 2024 GOP nominee, and then repeatedly ducking questions about Senate Republican hypocrisy over mean tweets.
Hopefully
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is predicting that America could develop "functional herd immunity" from the coronavirus over the spring and summer, as the rollout of the vaccines continues.
Ya think?
Fox News contributor Karl Rove said that Trump didn't set "a particularly good tone" when he repeatedly claimed the election was stolen and vowed to declare a "civil war" on his opponents, including Republicans who refused to support his baseless claims.
Fair questions
Fox News' Peter Doocy had some tough questions for White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki regarding Biden's past praise of Gov. Cuomo, and he didn't let up.
$15 minimum wage? Probably not. The Senate Parliamentarian issued a decision Thursday that the provision raising the federal minimum wage to $15 could not be included in the Covid relief bill. The bill is being passed through a Senate process known as "reconciliation," which allows bills to pass on a simple majority vote, but requires that the contents of the bill be narrowly focused on budget issues.
Several progressives called for Vice President Kamala Harris to overrule the decision, but Mediaite's Tommy Christopher is highly skeptical that she can -- or even should.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) remains undeterred so far, and said the House bill will move forward to a vote with the provision intact.
Khashoggi Just in: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally approved the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a long-awaited intelligence report released Friday. 6.5.0 |
|
|
| Exodus 32 So far, one of the characters getting the most attention at CPAC isn't even human, but rather a squat golden statue someone built to resemble Trump, wearing a business suit on top and Rocky Balboa-style boxing shorts and flip-flops on the bottom.
The statue attracted lots of attention as it was wheeled through the hallways at the conference hotel -- and lots of mockery on Twitter, much of which highlighted the Bible verses in Exodus 32 that describe the whole mess with the golden calf idol (spoiler alert: it doesn't end well for the calf-worshippers).
Check out the Golden Trump and read some of Twitter's best takes here. |
|
|
|
|
|
