When it comes to COVID-19, what’s more important: health and safety or personal freedoms?

It has become the great debate of the moment.

Which is more important: personal freedoms or the health and safety of the country?

Can the government and businesses and schools tell citizens that they have to get a shot? That they must wear a mask? That they must show a card or take a test to have a drink or see a concert or watch a play?

Those of us who believe in vaccines cannot understand those who refuse to get them and who vehemently advocate against protective measures such as masks. And the other side is dug in with their beliefs of personal rights.

This is just a small sample size, but USA Today published results Sunday of a COVID-19 poll it conducted with Ipsos for a story written by Washington bureau chief Susan Page and environmental and health inequities reporter Nada Hassanein. The poll — which was conducted online on Aug. 17 and 18 among 1,088 adults — showed that Americans say protecting the common good is more important than ensuring personal liberty when considering whether to require individuals to get a COVID-19 vaccination or wear a mask.

Among the key findings:

• 72% called mask mandates “a matter of health and safety” and not an infringement on personal safety.
• 61% said they endorsed requiring vaccinations except for those with a medical or religious exemption.
• 70% agreed individuals had a right to choose not to get the vaccine, but they didn’t have the right to be around the vaccinated.
• 66% supported state and local governments requiring masks.
• 62% supported employers requiring workers to get the vaccination.
• 68% supported businesses refusing service to the unvaccinated.
• 65% supported a ban on the unvaccinated traveling by airplane or mass transit.
• 65% supported sporting events and concerts barring the unvaccinated.
• 71% said colleges had a right to require students to be vaccinated to return to campus.

Then again, this continues to be a partisan and divisive topic. The poll also showed that 78% of Democrats said protecting the common good was more important than personal liberties, but 62% of Republicans said protecting personal liberty was more important.

That sentiment was evident Saturday during Donald Trump’s rally in Alabama. Trump told the crowd, “And you know what? I believe totally in your freedoms. I do. You’ve got to do what you have to do. But, I recommend: Take the vaccines. I did it. It’s good. Take the vaccines.”

Boos were heard after Trump said that.

Trump then tried to play it down the middle. When he heard the boos, he said, “No, that’s OK. That’s alright. You got your freedoms. But I happen to take the vaccine. If it doesn't work, you’ll be the first to know. OK? I’ll call up Alabama. I’ll say, hey, you know what? But (the vaccine) is working. But you do have your freedoms you have to keep. You have to maintain that.”

Do you?

You must watch this jaw-dropping video from The New York Times Opinion’s Alex Stockton and Lucy King: “Dying in the Name of Vaccine Freedom.” Watch it all the way to the end.

And finally, here’s a really thoughtful piece in The Atlantic from Silas House: “Some Americans No Longer Believe in the Common Good.”

Maddow’s new deal

Rachel Maddow isn’t going anywhere. After reports that she was considering leaving, MSNBC’s biggest prime-time star has signed a multiyear deal to stay with the network. Insider’s Claire Atkinson broke the story for Insider (note: story is behind a paywall).

The deal means Maddow will continue with the show that she has been hosting since 2009. It’s MSNBC’s highest-rated program. In the first quarter of 2021, Maddow’s show had an average total audience of 3.604 million viewers, making it the most-watched show on cable news. These days, she is averaging a little more than 2 million viewers a night, easily MSNBC’s most popular show.

As part of Maddow’s new deal, she also will develop other projects with NBCUniversal. The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Mullin has more on that. There also are reports, including from CNN’s Brian Stelter, that Maddow might shift from doing her show five nights a week to once a week sometime next year.

You would think NBCUniversal executives are breathing a sigh of relief over this deal. Not only is Maddow’s show extremely popular, but it has been noted by several media observers that MSNBC had no obvious replacement had Maddow left the network. Now they have at least a year to figure something out if Maddow’s show shifts to once a week.

Good news from Fox News

On Sunday, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott sent a memo to staff with good news. She wrote:

“FOX News Media has successfully evacuated three Afghan nationals who formerly served as freelance associates, as well as an Afghan colleague from a regional media company, along with their respective families (a total of 24 people) from Kabul, Afghanistan. These associated include consultants who served as local producers, translators, drivers, and security guards supporting our correspondents throughout FOX’s coverage of the war in Afghanistan for nearly two decades.”

Fox News joined the growing list of other American media outlets — including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and CNN — that have helped local journalists and their families get out of Afghanistan.

Check out this story from The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum, Tiffany Hsu and Katie Robertson: “How News Organizations Got Afghan Colleagues Out of Kabul.”

Ward’s exemplary work

Speaking of Afghanistan, CNN’s Clarissa Ward did incredible reporting in the days after Kabul fell to the Taliban, and she recounted some of that work, including her journey out of Afghanistan, during an interview on CNN’s “Reliable Sources’ with Brian Stelter.

Ward told Stelter about hundreds cramming into an enormous C-17 aircraft in the middle of the night.

“People are just so scared,” Ward said. “People are asking, ‘Where are we going? What happens next? My phone doesn’t work. Who do I contact? How will I find the rest of my family?’”

Ward added that after the plane took off, “It’s just this very, very strange sense of relief, but also sadness and guilt. Guilt like, ‘Why do we get to leave? Why are we so lucky and fortunate and tens of thousands of others are still pressing to try to get into that airport to try to get out safely.’”

Stelter also asked what point during the past week was the most perilous for Ward and her team. Ward said the worst part of covering conflict, other than having a gun pointed at you, is the uncertainty of what might happen next. She said waking up a week ago today — last Monday, the day after Kabul fell — was full of uncertainty. And despite not knowing what might happen next and how dangerous their situation might become, Ward and her team made the decision to not immediately evacuate so that they could “see this through. We had to stay on this story.”

After three weeks of working 19-hour days in Afghanistan and feeling totally exhausted, Ward and her team made the decision to leave on Friday.

“It’s certainly one of the most intense stories I've ever covered,” Ward said. 

What a mess at ‘Jeopardy!’

Mike Richards is out as host of “Jeopardy!” just as he was getting started. It was the dogged reporting by The Ringer’s Claire McNear that led to Richards' resignation. McNear not only dug into Richards’ past troubling comments, but a flawed selection process to replace the late Alex Trebek. Richards’ fingerprints were all over the process, making his selection smell rotten as soon as he was named the replacement for Trebek.

How is it that a reporter could dig all this up and yet Sony, which runs “Jeopardy,” could not? As CNN’s Brian Stelter said, “How does the smartest show on TV end up making such a dumb mistake?”

And the situation is still a mess. Richards already taped a week’s worth of shows as the new host before stepping down and he remains the show’s executive producer. It’s not as if the first week of shows, which are scheduled to air next month, can be scrapped. After all, you had contestants competing for money — including Matt Amodio, who goes into this season with 18 consecutive wins. You can’t just act as if the games involving Richards as host didn’t happen.

As far as the hiring process, Richards supposedly recused himself once he became interested in hosting the show. But as McNear pointed out in an interview on “The Press Box” podcast for The Ringer, he was still executive producer for the shows with other guest hosts. That meant he was helping them (or potentially not helping them) prepare as host, as well as running the shows they were hosting. McNear also said Richards was in charge of the team sending various episodes to focus groups to get their thoughts on various hosts.

Read McNear’s story and listen to the podcast. It’s outstanding.

By the way, McNear wrote a book on “Jeopardy!” a year ago called, “Answers in the Form of Questions.”

There is still no word on who will become the permanent host. Looks as if “Jeopardy!” will, for now, go back to guest hosts until they can sort out a mess that was self-inflicted.

Associated Press calls out DeSantis’ office for bullying

Christina Pushaw, the press secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, had her Twitter account suspended for 12 hours after her conduct led to an AP reporter receiving threats and other online harassment. At the end of last week, Associated Press incoming CEO Daisy Veerasingham wrote to DeSantis, urging him to end Pushaw’s “harassing behavior,” according to AP media writer David Bauder.

Last week, Brendan Farrington, an AP reporter in the Florida capital of Tallahassee, wrote a story about how one of DeSantis’ top donors also invests in a COVID-19 drug that DeSantis promotes. In a since-deleted tweet, Pushaw tweeted Farrington’s story and told her followers to “drag them.” Another Pushaw tweet said that if Farrington didn’t change his story she would “put you on blast.” She also retweeted a message that said “Light. Them. Up.” in reference to the AP.

Brian Carovillano, AP’s vice president and managing editor, told Bauder that what made Pushaw’s tweets even worse was that her job is to work with the media. He told Bauder, “There’s pushback, which we fully accept and is a regular facet of being a political reporter or any kind of reporter, and there’s harassment. This is not pushback, it’s harassment. It’s bullying. It’s calling out the trolls at somebody who is just doing his job and it’s putting him and his family at risk.”

Meanwhile, Pushaw told Bauder that she didn’t mean any harm toward Farrington and that saying “drag them” was merely social media slang. She added, “As soon as Farrington told me he received threats, I tweeted that nobody should be threatening anyone, that is completely unacceptable. I also urged him to report any threats to police.”

Pushaw’s Twitter account was up and running again Saturday, when she tweeted, “Twitter suspended me after AP complained about pushback to their debunked hit piece about @GovRonDeSantis. This only proves Governor DeSantis right — again. Those who challenge false narratives are too often silenced by corporate media and Big Tech collusion.”

We made it through the rain

My colleague, Al Tompkins, texted me Saturday night to ask if I was watching CNN’s coverage of “We Love NYC” — the concert that was interrupted because of severe weather.

He was talking about the outstanding job done by host Anderson Cooper, who had to fly by the seat of his pants to fill time and did so admirably. With virtually no notice or preperation, he had to interview the likes of Barry Manilow and Elvis Costello. And it was TV gold when Manilow began singing his hit, “I Made It Through the Rain” to Cooper over the phone

Cooper has extensive experience on a nightly live news show and is used to the unpredictability and zaniness while hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve specials. Whatever you chalk it up to, his work Saturday was special. As CBS “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert told him, “You are spinning straw into gold.”

Media tidbits

• Each week, NBC News concentrates on a particular topic to highlight across its various platforms. This week, that series is called “The Vanished,” and it will feature in-depth and exclusive coverage on missing and murdered Indigenous women. Reports will air on such programs as the “Today” show, the “NBC Nightly News,” “Dateline” and across MSNBC, NBC NewsNow and NBCNews.com.
• “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, again, showed his outstanding interview skills and grilled Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, at one point calling President Joe Biden’s statements on Afghanistan “flat wrong.” He added, “The president said al-Qaida is gone. It’s not gone. The president said he’s not heard any criticism from the allies. There’s been a lot of criticism from the allies. Words matter, and the words from the president matter most.” Here’s more on the interview.
• I turned on CNN over the weekend and saw Andrew Cuomo and thought, “What’s this guy doing on my TV?” He was giving updates on the storm headed toward the northeast. Why was he giving updates? Cuomo told reporters, “I am governor today, and I am in charge. I’ve also done this a few times, so that’s why.” Today is scheduled to be his last full day in office. And, with that in mind, check out The New York Times’ Jodi Kantor, Arya Sundaram, Melena Ryzik and Cara Buckley: “Turmoil Was Brewing at Time’s Up Long Before Cuomo.”
• Phil Valentine, a convervative radio talk show host based in Nashville, died over the weekend, a month after he said he had tested positive for COVID-19. He was 61. CNN’s Andy Rose wrote, “On his program, Valentine had repeatedly downplayed the importance of getting a vaccine against the virus, saying last December that he believed his personal odds of dying from COVID-19 were ‘probably way less than 1%.’” After Valentine became ill, his brother Mark wrote on Facebook: “Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an ‘anti-vaxer’ he regrets not being more vehemently ‘Pro-Vaccine’, and looks forward to being able to more vigorously advocate that position as soon as he is back on the air, which we all hope will be soon.” That was on July 22. In an interview on July 26, Mark Valentine told CNN, “He recognizes now that him not getting the vaccination has probably caused a bunch of other people not to get vaccinated. And that he regrets.”
• ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith will host tonight’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC. His guests will include Snoop Dogg, Allyson Felix and Nelly.
• New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand reports veteran sports broadcaster Bob Costas is likely to host the National League Championship Series for TBS.

Hot type

• Gut-wrenching story from The New York Times’ David Zucchino: “Desperation as Afghans Seek to Flee a Country Retaken by the Taliban.”
• Politico’s Bryan Bender, Alexander Ward, Lara Seligman, Andrew Desiderio and Alex Thompson with “‘This Is Actually Happening.’ Inside the Biden team’s five-day scramble as Afghanistan collapsed.”
• An exclusive from The Washington Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker: “How the U.S. vaccination drive came to rely on an army of consultants.”
• For Los Angeles Times subscribers, Meredith Blake with “Molly Shannon is a comedy legend. Now she’s opening up about the tragedy that shaped her.”

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

More resources for journalists

• Covering COVID-19 with Al Tompkins (daily briefing). — Poynter
• Hiring? Post jobs on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers.
• How to Spot Misinformation Online (Webinar) — Start anytime
• Poynter Producer Project (Seminar) — The deadline to apply is today, Monday, Aug. 23

The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.