On Tuesday, NBC reporter Stephanie Gosk slammed CNN hosts for the excess hype in bringing attention to a letter that was received from the Trump administration by a retired schoolteacher. The letter was so riddled with grammar and spelling errors that the retired schoolteacher proceeded to “grade” the letter.
Gosk appeared on NBC's Megyn Kelly Today on Tuesday, where she criticized CNN hosts who she feels went out of their way in order to bring attention to the letter that was apparently riddled with errors.
“We are missing the larger point. And this went viral and everyone went insane because everyone goes insane all the time with this White House. But let’s get to the real issues and take all of that energy and pour it into stuff that matters,” Gosk told Kelly. Kelly responded: “She did a good job of making her letter go viral though (NewsBusters)."
Just prior to the Megyn Kelly Today on May 29th, CNN’s New Day hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota featured an extensive interview with the recipient of the letter, retired school teacher Yvonne Mason. Yvonne Mason was prompted to write the original letter in response to the Parkland massacre, where she expressed her grief at the way the victims of the massacre were treated. She received a letter in response, which she claims was so riddled with errors that she proceeded to “grade” the letter and send it back.
After she proceeded to correct and “grade” the letter, Mason proceeded to mail it back. Mason even included a snarky note at the top of the letter where she wrote “Have y’all tried grammar and style check?”
During the interview, Mason expressed that she was bothered by certain words being capitalized where they should not have been. However, Berman pointed out that there are certain situations where style guides allow for those capitalizations. The interview ended with hosts speculating that President Trump would tweet a response to the situation.
This was not the first time that CNN had attempted to bring attention to Mason’s letter. On Sunday, May 27, CNN’s New Day initially attempted to hype the letter Mason received.
CNN was not the first to feature the story. CNN picked up the story from left-leaning outlet, the Huffington Post, who picked up the story from The Hill. According to the Hill report, Mason is a resident of Atlanta who taught high school students in South Carolina for 17 years.
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