On Wednesday, I wrote about a Los Angeles Times reporter, Alene Tchekmedyian, who was believed to be under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after she wrote a story about the department’s efforts to cover up an incident in which a deputy kneeled on a handcuffed inmate’s head. Tchekmedyian’s story included a video of the incident, and that’s mostly what had the department upset.
After a threatening letter from the Times’ lawyers and general outrage from media observers and supporters, the sheriff’s department said Wednesday that Tchekmedyian is not being investigated.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva put out a statement that said, “We have no interest in pursuing, nor are we pursuing, criminal charges against any reporters. We will conduct a thorough investigation regarding the unlawful disclosure of evidence and documentation in an active criminal case. The multiple active investigations stemming from this incident will be shared and monitored by an outside law enforcement entity.”
Actually, late Tuesday, the department put out a tweet that said, “Resulting from the incredible frenzy of misinformation being circulated, I must clarify at no time today did I state an LA Times reporter was a suspect in a criminal investigation. We have no interest in pursuing, nor are we pursuing, criminal charges against any reporters.”
Misinformation?! Villanueva had a poster board with Tchekmedyian’s photo on it during a press conference on Tuesday and when asked if Tchekmedyian was under investigation, Villanueva said, “The act is under investigation. All parties to the act are subject to investigation.”
Even in their Tuesday night Twitter thread, the department seemed to have a beef with the Times, tweeting, “What should be of interest is the fact the LA Times refuses to acknowledge their reporting, and the account of a disgruntled employee, were thoroughly debunked during today’s press conference.”
Actually, what is of interest is Tchekmedyian’s stories (here and here) and maybe that’s what the sheriff’s department should be worried about.
Klein’s column
New York Times opinion columnist Ezra Klein writes about the big media news of the week in ”Elon Musk Got Twitter Because He Gets Twitter.” Klein notes that many of Twitter’s power users are political, media, entertainment and technology elites. And many are worried about what’s going to happen next with Twitter.
Klein smartly writes, “At about this point, the answer probably seems obvious: Log off! One can, and many do. But it comes at a cost. To log off is to miss much that matters, in industries where knowing what matters is essential. It’s become cliché to say Twitter is not real life, and that’s true enough. But it shapes real life by shaping the perceptions of those exposed to it. It shapes real life by shaping what the media covers (it’s not for nothing that The New York Times is now urging reporters to unplug from Twitter and re-engage with the world outside their screens). It shapes real life by giving the politicians and business titans who master it control of the attentional agenda. Attention is currency, and Twitter is the most important market for attention that there is.”
Here are a few other Musk-Twitter stories of interest …
- Politico’s Emily Birnbaum and Betsy Woodruff Swan with “Twitter’s top lawyer reassures staff, cries during meeting about Musk takeover.”
- That lawyer was Vijaya Gadde. Musk used his powerful Twitter account to elevate criticism of her and another top Twitter executive. The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Faiz Siddiqui write about that in “Elon Musk boosts criticism of Twitter executives, prompting online attacks.”
- New York Times Magazine story editor Willy Staley with “Elon Musk Is a Typical Twitter User, Except for One Thing.”
- The Washington Post’s Will Oremus with “Elon Musk and tech’s ‘great man’ fallacy.”
- In a guest essay from The New York Times, Elizabeth Spiers with “Let’s Be Clear About What It’s Like to Be Harassed on Twitter.”
- NBC News’ Ben Collins with “Twitter says mass deactivations after Musk news were ‘organic.’”
- Meanwhile, what’s going on with Donald Trump’s Truth Social? In his review for The New York Times, Brian X. Chen writes, “To say I was underwhelmed would be an understatement.”
- Musk tweeted Wednesday evening, “For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally.”
- Interesting tweet from The Atlantic’s Molly Jong-Fast: “I don’t understand liberals leaving Twitter because they’re mad about Elon musk. For now, and this might not always be true forever, but for now this is the public square, why cede it?”
A disturbing blueprint
The most intriguing thing I read Wednesday was this opinion piece for CNN — “The Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election” — written by J. Michael Luttig, who formerly served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for 15 years and advised Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6. Luttig believes Donald Trump and others who continue to insist the 2020 election was stolen really aren’t thinking about 2020 anymore.
Luttig writes, “Trump’s and the Republicans’ far more ambitious objective is to execute successfully in 2024 the very same plan they failed in executing in 2020 and to overturn the 2024 election if Trump or his anointed successor loses again in the next quadrennial contest.”
Then Luttig adds this chilling line: “The last presidential election was a dry run for the next.”
Check out the whole piece.
Loser
Meanwhile, how is it that Trump holds so much power over the Republican Party and how can someone wrestle it away from him? The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich writes, “Just Call Trump a Loser.”
In his piece, Liebovich talks to “several Trump-opposing Republican strategists and former associates of the president.” One — Barbara Comstock, a longtime political consultant and former Republican congresswoman from Virginia — tells Liebovich, “Why on earth would we hitch our wagons again to a crybaby sore loser who lost the popular vote twice, lost the House, lost the Senate, and lost the White House, and so on? For Republicans, whether they embrace the Big Lie or not, Trump is vulnerable to having the stench of disaster on him.”
Joe watches Joe
Speaking of Trump, the former president was known for his cable news consumption, most notably Fox News. President Joe Biden apparently doesn’t watch as much cable news, but does watch some. Politico’s Max Tani writes, “Multiple people with knowledge of the president’s media consumption habits said he is a regular viewer of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ (and, less frequently, CNN’s ‘New Day’), which he occasionally has on in the background as he starts his day.”
Other links of interest …
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].
More resources for journalists
The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.
