Oliver Darcy here at 10:45pm ET Friday, on the final day of a dark winter, with the latest on Fox's coverage of Putin, the limbo Teen Vogue finds itself in, a judge's alarming opinion attacking NYT v Sullivan, weekend reads, and more. But first...
Biden's border blackout
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to the border on Friday with a group of bipartisan senators. Typically, when a cabinet secretary and lawmakers make such a trip, they would be accompanied by members of the press or a pooler to feed back notes to newsrooms.
But the Biden administration blocked that from happening. It's part of a larger pattern at the southern border of restricted media access — despite promises of transparency and the fact that there are at least 14,000 migrant children detained as the US sees a surge in migrants attempting to enter the country...
"The President promised things would be different"
The lack of access has been repeatedly pointed out by journalists this week. I've lost count of the number of live-shots that have ended with a reporter on the border pointing out that officials have denied access to the facilities holding migrant children.
In a statement, Radio Television Digital News Foundation executive director Dan Shelley blasted the Biden admin for failing on its promise of transparency. "The President promised things would be different. Turns out he was right, but in this case not the way we had hoped. The Trump administration allowed journalists into juvenile migrant detention facilities. He must fix this immediately. At a time when the southern border of the United States is undergoing a historic surge of migrants, it is more important than ever that journalists be allowed the necessary access to report accurately and independently on the Border Patrol’s response to the increased arrival of migrants and the wellbeing of those housed in Border Patrol facilities.”
Why Trump allowed access
As Shelley noted, the Trump admin did permit access to the facilities and they did provide the press photos. But it was for a very different reason, as NBC's Jacob Soboroff pointed out. "The Trump administration let us in. And they let us in because they wanted to explain to us and show us the cruelty of the separation policy. They wanted everyone to see that," he explained. "Now it's the Biden administration's turn to open the doors so we can fully tell the story of not just where they want to go but why they want to go to that place and show the American public ourselves."
What we're not seeing
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy was one of the lawmakers who traveled to the border on Friday. After visiting a processing facility, he tweeted a description of what he saw: "100s of kids packed into big open rooms. In a corner, I fought back tears as a 13 yr old girl sobbed uncontrollably explaining thru a translator how terrified she was, having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents..."
Republicans hammer Biden
After years of bashing the news media, some Republicans and right-wing media outlets have suddenly morphed into press advocates. Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted that he found it "outrageous & unacceptable" there was "no press" and "no cameras" with Mayorkas. "Next week, I’m bringing 15 senators to the border. DHS said NO to our request to bring media," Cruz said. "I will continue to fight for press access so every American can see this crisis for themselves!"
What the WH is saying
I reached out to Jen Psaki on Friday to ask once more about the lack of access at the border. She referred me to comments she had made earlier in the week. Psaki said Thursday that media tours of the facilities holding children had not been permitted due to Covid restrictions. But, she said, the admin remains "committed to transparency, and we're considering potential options, and we hope to have an update on that soon."
In a Wednesday comment to Fox's Kristin Fisher, who asked whether the White House had instructed border agents not to do ride-alongs, Psaki said, "I think we’ve seen, watching a number of the reports you all do, a number of Border Patrol officials who are quoted in them, who appear in them, and certainly in the White House we support that." But as Erik Wemple quipped in his Friday column, "Officials are quoted! Well, then why complain? Because solid coverage of the border requires more than just a quote here and there..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Wemple's column on the lack of press access at the border included this brutal kicker: "You know things are bad when Hannity doesn’t even need to exaggerate..." (WaPo)
-- “Transparency should absolutely be part of their short-, medium- and long-term aims,” Human Rights Watch associate director Clara Long said of the Biden admin... (The Hill)
-- Getty Images special correspondent John Moore: "I respectfully ask US Customs and Border Protection to stop blocking media access to their border operations. I have photographed CBP under Bush, Obama and Trump but now - zero access is granted to media..." (Twitter)
-- Chris Wallace on the Biden admin declining to call the situation at the border a crisis: "Why you would refuse to call it what it is, it seems to me it just sounds like you’re trying to paper over a very serious reality..." (Mediaite)
-- Anthony Fisher spoke to "Presidents Vs. the Press" author Harold Holzer on the "long, nasty history of no-holds barred battles between the White House and the media..." (Insider)
Fox cheering for Putin?
Right-wing media has appeared to take glee over the last 24 hours portraying Biden as a weak leader. First, as chronicled by Vox's Aaron Rupar, Fox personalities suggested and joked about how they didn't think Biden could effectively stand up to Putin (as if his predecessor did this) in a televised debate. Sean Hannity, for instance, said "as an American citizen" it was "humiliating" to watch Putin "mocking" Biden. Matt Gaetz joked that he did "not think the American would prevail" in a face off. On and on it went. As Ezra Klein tweeted, "Watching Fox News openly root for Putin is a really remarkable moment in what the American Right has become, captured for posterity."
On Friday, the narrative that Biden is a frail president picked up additional steam when he stumbled on the stairs of Air Force One. That fall was heavily covered in the right-wing media universe and, according to CrowdTangle, two of the top ten most engaged English links on Facebook were from Hannity and Dan Bongino linking to the footage. "***DEVELOPING***," Hannity posted on Facebook. "Feeble Joe Biden Falls Several Times Boarding Air Force One — Ends Up on His Knees," the far-right Gateway Pundit said in its own headline. And of course the Drudge Report, which has a long history covering the health issues of politicians, featured the fall as its banner story...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- "Trump’s lackeys are taunting Biden for his refusal to take up Putin’s debate challenge. But why didn’t Putin ever challenge Trump to a debate? The answer is that they had nothing to argue about," Jonathan Chait writes... (NY Mag)
-- "Russian disinformation doesn’t succeed thanks to the genius of Russians; it succeeds thanks to the sharp partisanship of Americans. Russian disinformation works because Americans allow it to work," Anne Applebaum writes... (The Atlantic)
-- Reuters announced "it is expanding its efforts to combat misinformation around the world with the launch of fact-checking initiatives in Iraq and Israel..." (Reuters)
Sunday on "Reliable Sources"
Brian Stelter writes: "On Sunday I'll be joined by Rep. Ilhan Omar, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Dr. Seema Yasmin, Connie Chung, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, David French, and Clive Myrie. Maybe a surprise or two, too! See you at 11am ET on CNN..."
WEEKEND PLANNER
The NCAA tournament continues...
A CNN special, "The Human Cost of Covid," will air Saturday at 9pm ET...
Season finales of "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy" and "Lincoln: Divided We Stand" premiere Sunday evening on CNN...
"Q: Into the Storm" debuts on HBO Sunday at 9pm ET. Scroll down for Lowry's review...
Fox hosts guest who went on anti-Asian xenophobic tweetstorm
Despite the wave of anti-Asian American racism and violence, Fox continues to invite on its air far-right personality Kimberly Klacik, who went on an xenophobic tweetstorm in December targeting those of Chinese descent (see above). Ironically, Klacik was invited on "Outnumbered" Friday to discuss Alexi McCammond's racist tweets about Asian-Americans (which McCammond has apologized for). "Klacik is an expert on racist statements about Asians in that she makes them herself," The Daily Beast's Max Tani noted. Fox's PR department ignored my request for comment...
>> Related: Fox's Susan Li said Friday that anti-Asian racism "needs to stop" and "someone needs to stand up for us." I couldn't agree more...
Teen Vogue in limbo
Kerry Flynn writes: "The leadership vacuum at Teen Vogue got even larger Friday. Samhita Mukhopadhyay, who served as exec editor for the past three years, is leaving. Mukhopadhyay tweeted she had been 'sitting on this announcement for a while' so it apparently wasn't an immediate reaction to McCammond's departure. The search for a new EIC is on, Teen Vogue posted on Instagram Thursday. For now, 'an internal team of advisors' is leading the staff..."
>> A must read: "The ‘Teen Vogue’ Mess Is What Happens When Bosses Don't Listen" is the headline on Aleksander Chan's analysis of McCammond's hiring...
>> Graeme Wood's take: "America Has Forgotten How to Forgive." He says "for the sake of today’s Teen Vogue readers, I hope that by the time they are McCammond’s age, the current culture has developed its own process of expiation..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Kyung Lah discussed racism she's encountered while reporting across the US: "They always want to know where I’m from… The way you're treated is that you're not fully American—that even though I speak English perfectly, I am indeed American, the assumption is that somehow you are foreign..." (Twitter)
-- Katy Tur: "Women carry this fear: Of being attacked, of being blamed, of being killed. Everyday, and everywhere..." (Twitter)
-- Jon Allsop wrote about some of the flaws in the news coverage thus far... (CJR)
-- Andrew Sullivan wrote about it too, from a very different POV, blasting the media for "rushing to promote ready-made narratives" which "scare the bejeezus out of people unnecessarily..." (Weekly Dish)
Twitter says it mistakenly suspended MTG
There was buzz Friday morning that Twitter had suspended the account of radical congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. But the platform soon clarified that it had not been intentional. "We use a combination of technology and human review to enforce the Twitter Rules across the service," the company said. "In this case, our automated systems took enforcement action on the account referenced in error." Predictably, MTG did not accept Twitter's explanation, baselessly suggesting instead she was the target of a larger conspiracy to silence her...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- "Facebook on Friday experienced an outage that interrupted its services, including its social network, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp..." (CNBC)
-- "For political cartoonists, the irony was that Facebook didn't recognize irony." Mike Isaac reports on FB moderators' "trouble dealing with satire..." (NYT)
-- YouTube's Shorts test has begun to roll out in the US, Adriana Lee reports... (WWD)
-- Have you ever heard of a "Twitch livestream subathon?" Taylor Lorenz explains it here... (NYT)
-- "As Equals:" CNN is embarking on a "three-year digital project to cover gender inequality worldwide..." (Journalism.co.uk)
Judge issues alarming opinion attacking NYT v Sullivan
"A federal appeals court judge issued an extraordinary opinion Friday attacking partisan bias in the news media, lamenting the treatment of conservatives in American society and calling for the Supreme Court to overturn a landmark legal precedent that protects news outlets from lawsuits over reports about public figures," Politico's Josh Gerstein wrote Friday. "D.C. Circuit Senior Judge Laurence Silberman’s diatribe, contained in his dissent in a libel case, amounted to a withering, frontal assault on the 1964 Supreme Court decision that set the framework for modern defamation law — New York Times v. Sullivan." The whole opinion is really remarkable — to say the least — and worth reading in full...
More journalists detained in Myanmar
BBC reporter Aung Thura was "taken away by men in plain clothes while reporting outside a court in the capital" in Myanmar, the outlet said Friday. "The BBC takes the safety of all its staff in Myanmar very seriously and we are doing everything we can to find Aung Thura," the BBC said in a statement. "We call on the authorities to help locate him and confirm that he is safe." According to the BBC, Thura was "taken away with another reporter, Than Htike Aung, who works for the local news organisation Mizzima." More details here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- It’s important for the press to be careful about how it covers any adverse vaccine reactions, and careful coverage of any cases in which vaccinated people become infected is equally important. As Katherine J. Wu writes, such cases are "very expected..." (Atlantic)
-- Disney's US employees will begin returning to their offices after the July 4 holiday, Anthony D'Alessandro reported... (Deadline)
-- During the pandemic, Americans have turned to nostalgic comedy shows, data from Nielsen shows... (Nielsen)
-- Longtime Washington correspondent and Univision producer Pablo Sánchez died earlier this year at 75. He was "probably days or weeks from receiving a coronavirus vaccine. But he caught the virus before he found an appointment for a shot," Steve Thompson wrote Friday... (WaPo)
RIP Stephen Brown
Deepest condolences to the Politico and Axel Springer family: "Stephen Brown, the editor in chief of Politico Europe and a former news correspondent who reported widely from Europe and South America for Reuters for more than a quarter-century, died Thursday in Brussels. He was 57," David Herszenhorn wrote Friday. He suffered a heart attack. Brown was remembered as "a tireless and boundlessly enthusiastic collaborator always eager to tackle their next project, and who was deeply committed to Politico's journalism and to his family..."
>> John Harris: "He knew that running a successful newsroom is essentially about understanding people with all their individual strengths and weaknesses and bringing them together as a team. He was perceptive and empathetic at all times..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Kerry Flynn:
-- Peter Kafka is out with an explainer about the recent Substack drama. One interesting detail is Matt Yglesias' transparency on his Substack deal: he says agreeing to take an advance is providing less money than he could have earned without it... (Recode)
-- Missed this Thursday: A Connecticut legislative committee is considering a bill "that would give the state a role in the newspaper's finances..." (CT Mirror)
-- Reach, which owns the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and other regional papers in UK and Ireland, is shutting down dozens of its offices and telling three-quarters of its staffers to permanently work from home... (Guardian)
-- Karen K. Ho is joining Insider to cover the business of sustainability. She was previously at Quartz covering global finance and economics... (Twitter)
Weekend reads...
By Katie Pellico and Brian Stelter:
-- The "infodemic" has given way to "chronic misinformation," Vittoria Elliott writes... (Rest of World)
-- A captivating piece by Lucy Sherriff: "Hawaii's forgotten Native-language newspapers are a treasure trove of climate data," since they contain accounts of extreme weather from the past... (Future Human)
-- Tom Cleveland conducted a fascinating outside analysis of "how The New York Times A/B tests their headlines..." (TJCX)
-- A weekend listen: "Airbnb has a hate group problem, too." Hear Kara Swisher's conversation with CEO Brian Chesky, who "discusses why he and Mark Zuckerberg have different consequences to consider..." (Sway)
-- Tim Karr makes the case that a "tax on online advertising" would be more effective than a bargaining code for publishers and Big Tech... (Truthout)
Sunday night's one-two combo
Brian Lowry writes: "Sunday night features a pretty potent one-two combo, beginning with 'Q: Into the Storm,' filmmaker Cullen Hoback’s six-hour, multi-year investigation into QAnon and its origins, which seeks to pull back the curtain on the wizard or wizards behind the movement that has become such a corrosive force in US politics and society. Elsewhere, Cynthia Erivo turns in a show-stopping performance as Aretha Franklin in 'Aretha,' the latest installment of National Geographic’s 'Genius' anthology, which will play over four consecutive nights..."
Oscar producers prep for in-person show
Brian Lowry writes: "Oscar producers are laying out plans for an in-person presentation, avoiding the remote format of some earlier shows. It’s likely doable, but perhaps a lot of work for a telecast that appears destined to drop 50-60% ratings-wise, based on all the available evidence and trendlines from the Golden Globes and Grammys. Variety’s Tim Gray, meanwhile, pointed to a back-to-the-future aspect to this year's scaled-down ceremony, which will actually mirror aspects of the Academy Awards from the earliest days of TV in the 1950s..."
Chloe talks with Tayshia Adams
Chloe Melas emails: "Tayshia Adams spoke to me following the announcement that she will co-host next season of 'The Bachelorette,' alongside Kaitlyn Bristowe, in the wake of Chris Harrison stepping aside following his controversial comments. 'I am so incredibly excited,' she told me. 'I feel so extremely honored to have even been given the opportunity. If I can provide any sense of comfortability for anybody that's watching this show, knowing that I'm there, my presence matters, that means the most to me.'"
Critics Choice Association expels journalist
Brian Lowry emails: "Journalist Jeffrey Wells has been suspended from the Critics Choice Association awards group, per THR, after a post – later deleted. In the post, Wells linked the shootings in Atlanta to the Oscar prospects of 'Nomadland' director Chloe Zhao and the movie 'Minari,' which has a predominantly Asian cast..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN
-- Lisa Respers France writes: Hailey Bieber talked about marrying Justin “insanely young..."
-- One more from Lisa that will put a smile on your face: Blue Ivy Carter wearing a crown and sipping out of her first Grammy is big energy...
-- The lead of Sean McNulty's new A.M. newsletter The Wakeup: Peacock is "going all Netflix on us, making all 9 seasons of 'The Office' avail to watch for free. For a week. Starting yesterday..." (The Wakeup)
-- Speaking of "The Office," Nielsen is out with new data about comedy TV viewership, including a stat about 2020 viewership of the show: 30 billion minutes viewed via traditional TV and 57 billion minutes viewed via Netflix... (Nielsen)
-- Apple TV+ "has given a straight-to-series order to a half-hour comedy series starring Emmy winner Maya Rudolph..." (Deadline)
-- Meghan Trainor "has signed a cross-platform overall deal with NBCUniversal Television and Streaming," a first of its kind pact for the company... (THR)
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day
Reader Maureen McNeil emails: "Our Boxer, Fancy Pearl, watches Reliable Sources with us every Sunday Morning. She and hubby keep their comments to themselves. I, however, do not!"
Thank you for reading and congratulations on making it to the end of the week! Send us your feedback and tips anytime. Until next time...
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