The “Today” show’s Craig Melvin interviewed former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley on Wednesday to talk about her announcement that she is entering the 2024 presidential race. The interview is scheduled to air on this morning’s “Today” on NBC.
Haley kicked off her presidential campaign on Wednesday at an event in Charleston, South Carolina. (Here’s more from The Associated Press’ Meg Kinnard and Michelle L. Price.)
Meanwhile, columnists at The New York Times weighed in on Haley’s chances in 2024. With the understanding that it’s still a long way away, 10 Times columnists rated Haley’s chances on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 denoting that Haley has a very strong chance of being her party’s nominee. Five of the columnists had Haley at 2 or 1. Only two had Haley’s score above 5 — David Brooks at 6 and Bret Stephens at 7.
Stevens wrote, “She still has work to do to win over other core Republican constituencies (above all, evangelicals and Trump sympathizers), but nobody should underestimate her appeal. She looks like a winner to a party that’s desperate to win.”
Jane Coaston, who put Haley’s chances at a 2, wrote, “To borrow a phrase, we should take it extremely literally but not seriously. She is indeed running for president. But Nikki Haley will not be the next president of the United States of America.”
And Liz Mair, who had Haley’s chances the lowest at a 1, wrote, “She could be the next vice president. That’s the reason to take her seriously.”
MSNBC boss comments on the media
MSNBC president Rashida Jones spoke on Wednesday with New York Urban League CEO and president Arva Rice at a public event in New York City.
Jones had interesting comments, including about trust in media and the importance of accountability in journalism to ensure factual and inclusive reporting.
Jones said, “For us, rather than looking at a political culture or a political perspective, what we focus on is the truth. Are the angles that we’re hitting representative of truth and democracy and the rights of humans across the board? We can get stuck into both sides for a fair amount or however you look at it. You can’t sacrifice the truth. Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. Sometimes the truth might be critical of this group or that group. Rather than trying to keep a scorecard of, well, we had X number of perspectives in this party, and X number of perspectives in this party. It’s gotten a little bit more nuanced than that. That’s one of the things we’ve done really well, that nuance.”
Jones also talked about challenges in creating equity in media and newsrooms across the country. She said, “If it were easy, it would be done, right? It’s always going to be a moving target. There’s always going to be an opportunity to improve and ensure the people in our newsrooms look like the country that we cover. I think if you don’t have processes, or there isn’t the highest level of prioritization, it can feel like it’s one person’s job, not everybody’s job. I think if we think about where we want to be, what does diversity actually look like when you’re done, it is almost an unrealistic goal because you're never done. I think you have to, as an organization, move from the ground up and be fully committed to this environment and you see that this department is not just the right thing to do.”
Twitter’s next CEO might be a real dog
Elon Musk says he hopes Twitter could have a new CEO by the end of the year.
Speaking via a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk was asked about naming a CEO and he said, “I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place. I’m guessing probably toward the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company.”
Will the unpredictable Musk actually stick to that timeframe?
Who knows, but Musk tweeted a photo of his dog late Tuesday night. The dog was sitting behind a desk while wearing a shirt that said “CEO.” Musk wrote, “The new CEO of Twitter is amazing.” He added, “So much better than that other guy!”
Last December, Musk tweeted a poll asking people whether he should step down as the head of Twitter, and saying he would abide by the results. More than 17.5 million voted, with 57.5% saying he should step down.
Man from infamous photo commits suicide
A memorable image of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was of two men carrying tiki torches and yelling at someone or something out of frame.
One of those men, Teddy Joseph Von Nukem, killed himself on Jan. 30 — the same day he was set to face trial on a federal drug trafficking charge. Von Nukem died at his home in Missouri from an apparent gunshot wound. According to a coroner’s report obtained by The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery, “Suicide notes were found at the scene, left for law enforcement and his children, however handwriting was somewhat inconsistent.”
Von Nukem, 35, faced charges in Arizona of trafficking fentanyl across the Mexico border. He was arrested in March 2021 for allegedly having more than 33 pounds of fentanyl pills in his vehicle.
Von Nukem became one of the faces of the hate speech rally in August 2017. Von Nukem was accused of participating in the beating of counterprotester DeAndre Harris. The next day, 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and dozens of others were injured when a man in a car plowed into a group of counterprotesters.
The news of Von Nukem’s death was reported first on Twitter by Molly Conger, whom The Daily Beast called “an independent journalist in Charlottesville who has become a key anti-fascism researcher in the years since the rally shook the city.”
For more, The Washington Post’s Timothy Bella has, “Unite the Right marcher captured in viral photo dies by suicide before trial.”
Layoffs at Sports Illustrated
Once upon a time not that long ago, Sports Illustrated was the gold standard of sports journalism and one of the best, most respected and most stable magazines in the world.
These days, after ownership changes and rounds of layoffs over the past several years, the outlet is a shell of its former self. On Wednesday, Sports Illustrated announced more layoffs, including several talented writers and editors.
No official list is out there, but many of those laid off started posting the news on social media. Awful Announcing’s Andrew Bucholtz has a post collecting some of the tweets, as well as some of SI’s recent ownership history.
Media tidbits