Earlier this week, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security about the damage Facebook has knowingly done to our democracy, as well as the negative impact it has on some of its users.
Now Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal — chairman of the subcommittee — wants to hear from Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg. Speaking on CNN’s “New Day,” Blumenthal said Facebook is facing a “Big Tobacco moment” and it’s time for Zuckerberg to speak beyond the statement to staff that he posted on Facebook Tuesday night.
“We will be asking him to come testify before our subcommittee,” Blumenthal told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “If he has disagreements with Frances Haugen, if he wants to explain these documents — thousands of them, his own research, his own reports that show how they are putting profits ahead of people and endangering children — he should come tell it to our committee and to the American people.”
Blumenthal said he hopes Zuckerberg will come forward in the coming weeks, but added, “I can’t tell you whether he will accept, but I think Mark Zuckerberg has an obligation to tell the American people himself, not just in this message to his employees.”
Here are the receipts
You’ve seen and heard about the scenes at schools across the country. Parents yelling at school board members, teachers, school officials and other parents (and, in some cases, threatening and actually making physical contact) because they are upset about mask requirements in schools.
Yet, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), among some other Republican lawmakers, seems indignant that the Justice Department wants to increase the monitoring of threats across the nation. Hawley thinks it’s a way to stifle the free speech of those parents who want to argue against mask mandates.
But on Chris Hayes’ MSNBC show, “All In,” Hawley was made to look like a fool as the show sprinkled in video and news reports of disturbing behavior from schools — all while Hawley seemed to argue that the DOJ was overreacting.
Here’s the video.
Hayes said, “Josh Hawley’s very upset. We’re going to send him that montage just to read him into a little bit of what’s been going on at the local level, but I suspect he knows.”
Champion for women
In Wednesday’s newsletter, I had an item about ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor Sage Steele, who made some controversial remarks on a podcast with former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler. Steele criticized ESPN’s vaccine mandate as “sick” and “scary,” and questioned why former President Barack Obama identified as Black because his Black father didn’t help raise him.
Another comment Steele made, which I didn’t mention Wednesday, was about women in the sports media business.
“When you dress like that,” Steele told Cutler, “I’m not saying you deserve the gross comments, but you know what you’re doing when you’re putting that outfit on, too.”
Steele’s former ESPN colleague Cari Champion appeared on CNN’s “New Day” on Wednesday and expressed disappointment in Steele’s remarks and said her comments about Obama were “disrespectful.”
Steele did put out a statement this week apologizing for those remarks.
Regarding Steele’s comments about how women in sports media dress, Champion said, “That’s dumb. I don’t have any other eloquent way to say that. She clearly has issues with women … her statements, while being anti-Black … probably would not have been a big issue, but now she’s anti-woman and that’s a big no-no. This business, in particular, which is a male-dominated business, really doesn’t lend itself to be friendly towards women. So if you have a woman who’s at the top of her game saying she’s not going to help another woman because of the way she’s dressed — all that does is push us further down.”
Champion worked at ESPN from 2012 to 2020 and now co-hosts a show with Jemele Hill for VICE TV.
For more, including video of Champion’s comments, check out the story by Mediaite’s Brandon Contes.
Additions at the LA Times
The Los Angeles Times announced Wednesday that Samantha Melbourneweaver, a three-year veteran of the Times, is being promoted to assistant managing editor for audience.
In addition to that announcement, executive editor Kevin Merida and managing editor Kimi Yoshino wrote, “We will add 15 positions — nine to grow the core audience team and an additional six aimed at producing lively, original content that will pop on social platforms from Twitter to Instagram to TikTok and beyond. This new squad of internet storytellers — our ‘meme team’ — will experiment with form and voice, starting conversations with their content, building online communities and establishing new relationships between the L.A. Times and people who may not currently think of us as a part of their world. This is a major investment in our digital growth and a critical step toward attracting new readers. The expansion will benefit the entire newsroom and every area of our coverage. In total, the positions include audience and social media editors, SEO and news aggregator producers, social content creators and a user-generated content expert.”
Good guy of the day
