Another Super thought
This year’s Super Bowl wasn’t the most exciting ever played, although Seattle’s defense was impressive and it did the country a favor by beating the team that (most) everyone loves to hate — the New England Patriots. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand wrote, “In a boring Super Bowl, NBC’s Mike Tirico was the best quarterback.”
Marchand mentioned how it was just before the 2022 NFL season that NBC made the move from the legendary Al Michaels to Tirico as the voice of “Sunday Night Football” and future Super Bowls aired on NBC. Tirico made a football comparison — like the time the Green Bay Packers went from quarterback Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers. It was not an easy call for NBC, considering Michaels was still very much on top of his game. In fact, as the lead voice of Amazon Prime’s “Thursday Night Football,” Michaels remains as good as anyone in the business.
Tirico has vaulted himself among the all-time greats (a list that includes Michaels). He called Sunday’s Super Bowl masterfully, then went onto the field in Santa Clara, Calif. to host the primetime edition of NBC’s Olympics coverage. After hosting that, Tirico jumped on a plane and flew 6,000 miles (10 hours) to the Winter Games in Italy and will be on your TV screen for the next two weeks.
And when that is all done, when most broadcasters would want to spend a few weeks on a beach, Tirico will be the lead announcer on NBC’s new NBA coverage.
It gets worse
Last week, the journalism world was rocked by massive layoffs at The Washington Post. Most reports were that the paper laid off about a third of the newsroom.
However, former longtime Post media reporter Paul Farhi, in a story for The Washingtonian, writes those estimates might have been low.
Farhi wrote, “… an accounting by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, the union that represents Post journalists, finds that the paper’s management eliminated closer to half of the journalists it used to employ. According to guild steward Sarah Kaplan, a Post Metro reporter, the paper is dropping between 350 and 375 journalists. With the newsroom’s pre-layoff strength at 790 people, that means between 44 percent and 47.5 percent of the newsroom has been axed.”
Farhi added, “Previous reports said that nearly 300 union members were among those laid off last week. That figure did not account for dozens more layoffs among Post journalists who aren’t covered by the Guild’s contract, including staffers in its foreign bureaus and editors and managers in Washington.”
Washington Post to provide ‘transition support’ for staff laid off overseas
For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.
Shortly after the Washington Post laid off more than 300 journalists last week — including many of its foreign correspondents — false rumors started to circulate online that overseas staff had been "abandoned" and forced to crowdsource their way home.
"Jeff Bezos fired more than 300 people and didn’t even arrange for them to get safely home," read one popular post on X, referencing the Post's billionaire owner.
The Post pushed back against that framing, calling such rumors "entirely inaccurate" Monday. The outlet's public relations account on X posted, "The Washington Post is actively supporting employees impacted by last week’s restructuring, including transition support for our international employees." That support includes severance; extended access to security services, health care and housing subsidies; relocation support; and consultations with immigration services, according to a Post spokesperson.
It is true that many of the Post's foreign correspondents — including those covering the Middle East, China, Russia and South Asia — learned that they were being let go while overseas. At least one, a Ukraine correspondent, got the news while in a warzone. But those correspondents are permanently stationed overseas and not abroad on temporary assignment, and the Post has said that it is working to support them.
The confusion likely stems from a popular GoFundMe organized by Post journalists to support the outlet's international employees who were laid off. Many, but not all, of the Post's journalists belong to The Washington Post Guild, whose parent union is the NewsGuild. Those who are not part of the guild — and thus lack the protections that come with a union contract — include members of management and certain international staff who were hired through overseas subsidiaries.
Those non-union international staff include correspondents, editors, researchers, translators, office managers and drivers, according to the GoFundMe campaign. The funds raised — more than $206k as of Monday evening — will be disbursed among non-union staff overseas to help cover "rent, legal guidance, relocation to a new or safer country, storage for belongings left behind, and other urgent transition needs." (A separate GoFundMe for union members has raised more than $522k.)
Meanwhile, the union is currently bargaining severance packages with the Post. Those negotiations are expected to conclude by Feb. 20, according to a Post spokesperson.
The Guardian reported that Post employees who were laid off last week will remain part of the staff through April 10 and will receive six months of continued health insurance. While those affected by the layoffs are not required to work, some have chosen to do so, including two reporters who received their pink slips while in Italy covering the Winter Olympics.
Powerful comments
Catching up on this from the weekend — former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie was on ABC’s “This Week” and talked about Donald Trump’s racist social media post about Barack and Michelle Obama last Friday. The post was up about 12 hours before it was taken down. Trump refused to apologize for the post, saying it was put up by a White House staffer.
Christie said, “I talk to friends of mine in my party who will say to me all the time, ‘Look, he’s not a good guy. He’s kind of crazy. But I like the issues.’ Here’s the thing: what they’re discovering now is character is the most important issue. And what the posting of that video shows is his absolute lack of character. And now what we’re seeing is when you don’t have character, you can’t get the issues done either.”
Christie explained that all of Trump’s shenanigans that show his lack of character are so distracting that he — and no one else — can focus on the important matters at hand, such as the economy and immigration.
Christie added, “So for all my friends out there who say, ‘Yeah, I know the character is awful, but I care about the issues’ — you not only now support someone with no character, but his lack of character leads to us not being able to accomplish the issues that we care about either.”
Reversing course
Now Trump says he is endorsing the proposed merger between local broadcast giants Nexstar and Tegna — a reversal from his previous stance.
Trump wrote on social media, “We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks. Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar — Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition. ... GET THAT DEAL DONE.”
The Associated Press’ Christopher Rugaber wrote, “The acquisition, which Nexstar announced in August and requires regulatory approval, would bring together two companies with significant holdings in local broadcast media. Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in 116 markets nationwide and also runs networks like The CW and NewsNation. Meanwhile, Tegna owns 64 news stations across 51 markets.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote that Nexstar's pending acquisition of Tegna “will strengthen the right-leaning Nexstar and shrink the number of station owners in the US.”
Guess where Dan Bongino is headed?
