05.03.23
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – POLITIFACT
For years now, it has been more than apparent how teachers' union President Randi Weingarten had pushed for some time to keep schools closed far longer than many leaders and parents desired. However, PolitiFact attempts to come out with a new correction on the matter, insisting that Weingarten actually wanted schools to open earlier than they had. Yes – they seriously are trying to sell us on that concept.
Teachers union President Randi Weingarten advocated for reopening schools with pandemic safety measures. She criticized the Trump administration’s 2020 calls to reopen schools fully, but it’s misleading to claim that she opposed reopening at all. https://t.co/Km8FkMkXd2
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) May 3, 2023
This outright falsehood is so blatant that as Weingarten touted the PolitiFact piece on Twitter, she was promptly corrected by the Community Notes response. How anyone, including herself, could dispute the mountain of evidence of her demanding schools stay closed is sheer desperation.
SUPERCUT!
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 2, 2023
Don't let @rweingarten rewrite history. Here's proof she orchestrated the developmental destruction of a generation of kids. pic.twitter.com/vFChQsZ7vj
Race to the Bottom – WASHINGTON POST
After a confrontation between riders on a New York subway, one man who instigated the confrontation died. Curiously, in the headline, the Washington Post saw fit to include the race of the victim, something that outlets have been rather selective about including.
A 30-year-old Black man was killed on a New York subway this week after a fellow rider, who is White, confronted the man when he was screaming and placed him in a chokehold for several minutes, according to a witness’s account and video of the encounter. https://t.co/8Evabzvagx
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 3, 2023
Contrast this with the hesitancy we saw from news outlets to properly identify, say, the shooter of the Nashville Christian school. But more obvious still, on this very same day when there was a shooting in Atlanta, numerous WaPo articles never saw the need to include the race or identity of the shooter.
Both Kinds of Standards – POLITICO
One of the earliest exits from the Biden administration was when Deputy Press Secretary T.J. Ducklo was compelled to resign after he was found to have been verbally abusive with then-Politico reporter Tara Palmeri (now with Puck). Word is that the Biden administration is now about to welcome the disgraced communications wonk back into the fold of the White House:
More than a dozen of Ducklo’s former colleagues from the 2020 campaign and the White House reached out Tuesday to West Wing Playbook, arguing that he has made amends for his actions and deserves another stint in Biden world. The news coverage of his behavior was humiliating, they said.
Small matter that his explosion was over the imminent revelation of Ducklo's professionally inappropriate relationship with Axios reporter Alexi McCammond.
TJ Ducklo is on the cusp of joining Biden’s campaign in a senior communications role, and many of his former colleagues are rallying around him.
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) May 2, 2023
Although his return two years after a difficult resignation is not without controversy.
w/ @Lauren_V_Egan https://t.co/iBNaVKVOfQ
Legalized Press-titution – KANSAS CITY STAR
A new gender-establishing law was passed last week in Kansas when the state legislature overrode a veto by Governor Laura Kelly. In a lengthy description of the impacts this might have on everything from public bathrooms to scholastic sports, it sounds as if this is a completely nefarious piece of legislation. This would be a result of the reporters only speaking with critics of the law.
As a sign of the activist approach taken by the news outlet, the article cites the Independent Women's Forum as one female rights group behind the law – describing the organization dismissively as an "anti-trans group." I reached out to the media office of IWF to ask if they had been contacted at all for the piece (given no one from the group was quoted). They explained that for weeks they have spoken with reporters and given documentation for their proposals, but somehow all the information and quotes could not find a way into this deep description of the law.
The new sweeping law will affect everything from public bathrooms to government IDs, but how it will be enforced is still not clear. Here’s what we know so far. https://t.co/oXP65NShYk
— The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) May 2, 2023
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – NBC NEWS
It is to the point that we need to ask when – if ever – it will cease to be news when an entertainment award announces it has nominated/awarded a member of a select sub-category from society. (Someday, we will learn how some performer is the first left-handed, heterochromia, alopecia sufferer to win Best Director.)
The Tony Awards nominations have been announced, and we get "news" that in honoring Broadway excellence, this is the first time a non-binary and non-gender-conforming performer received nominations! J. Harrison Ghee has been nominated for the revival of "Some Like It Hot," and Alex Newell is chosen from the musical "Shucked."
What is the difference, you might ask, between these two designations? Well…we read the explanation from NBC-Out, and we still are not clear on the distinction:
Ghee is nonbinary and Newell is gender-nonconforming, and both of them use the pronouns he, she and they. Gender-nonconforming is an umbrella term that includes people who don’t follow traditional ideas about how they should look or act based on their assigned sex at birth. Nonbinary people, who are neither exclusively male nor female, can be gender-nonconforming.
The only thing less obvious than this is why we are supposed to care about these accomplishments, but one thing is clear – Broadway has never honored people from these categories before today, so they really are not any more tolerant than those they enjoy accusing of intolerance, it seems.
‘History?’ Trans Performers Nominated for Tonys as ‘Actors’
— RedState (@RedState) May 3, 2023
https://t.co/dAkgekeBWc
