| Oliver Darcy here at 10:50pm ET. In this edition: The ACLU is calling for "binding limits" on the DOJ, the National Review's Charles C.W. Cooke says "Maggie Haberman is right," BuzzFeed "strongly condemns" the sentencing of a source, and AMC stock mania continues. Plus, Twitter launches a paid product and Facebook will reportedly end special rules for politicians. But first...
Covering the Olympics
Thursday was the 50-day marker until the start of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo — an Olympics that, if they do get underway as expected, will be like no other. Typically, the Olympics are covered by news orgs as a sporting affair first and foremost. Sports commentators and journalists fan out across the host city to cover the competitions. And there will be lots of that coverage when the games commence on July 23. But the bigger and more important story is the one related to public health.
Covid infections in Japan remain at stubbornly high levels — levels much higher than when the games were delayed last year. Japan has been off to a slow start vaccinating its citizens and its health care system is under stress. Asahi Shimbun, one of the country's largest newspapers, reflected public sentiment late last month when it called for the games to be canceled.
But Japan has vowed to press ahead. And so, in just a matter of weeks, tens of thousands of athletes, coaches, staff, and members of the press will descend on Tokyo for the games. This raises a multitude of questions, including whether the 2021 Olympics could be remembered as a super-spreader event...
I spoke by phone on Thursday with Dr. Arthur Caplan, professor of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Caplan expressed significant worry that the press, thus far, has not done a sufficient job spotlighting the public health questions lingering over the games. He acknowledged that there has been some coverage about whether the games will be canceled or postponed, but it hasn't been rigorous enough or touched on other public health aspects.
One of Caplan's main worries is that in the US, life is getting back to normal and people are getting tired of hearing about Covid, all of which could skew news coverage. "For me there is a big challenge for media," he said. "There are tendencies to want to portray things as back to normal ... but most of the world is not in that situation."
"All the big news outlets have an obligation to pay as much attention to the public health side as the sports side," Caplan added. "I think it would be important not to ignore the fact that many throughout the world are in the middle of public health outbreaks while they send delegations to play water polo or field hockey."
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine and surgery at GWU, stressed that "journalists should be asking about the vaccination program in Japan," among other things.
Some of Reiner's Qs: "Japan wishes to conduct an enormous international event involving many thousands of people yet the country has only fully vaccinated 3% of its population. Is it fair to consume so many resources now for a sporting event? Would the money and physical resources be better spent on getting more Japanese vaccinated? Are the Olympic organizers mandating vaccines for all the athletes? What are the ethics surrounding that when so many competitors are coming from countries without robust vaccination programs? Why bring so many people together in Japan just as they are recovering from a big surge?"
Reiner wanted to know whether the athletes will be required to be vaccinated, but the games are so much larger than just the competitors. Arguably more important: Will the thousands of support staff and members of the international press be required to show proof of vaccination to be in Tokyo to cover the games? It seems like a simple question, but I couldn't get an answer when I reached out to the International Olympics Committee on Thursday.
The IOC outlined in late April other guidelines, including requiring that participants take two Covid tests before flying to Japan and testing those "in close proximity" to athletes daily. "All other Games participants will be tested daily for three days after their arrival," the IOC said. But nothing I could find on vaccine requirements...
I've been checking in with NBC to see how the network is planning for the games, given the challenges and calls for the games to be canceled. Does the network have any contingency plans in the unlikely event the games are scrapped? A spox told me last week that the network's focus "remains on presenting the Tokyo Games to the American public on our platforms starting on July 23..." FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- Speaking of NBC's coverage: Richard Deitsch reports that NBC has "received permission from other networks to use a number of their staffers including Jason Benetti, Beth Mowins and Matt Winer, who normally appear nationally on ESPN and Turner Sports..." (The Athletic)
-- Thursday's big Olympics headline: "Nearly 10,000 volunteers drop out of Tokyo Olympics with just 50 days until Games start..." (ESPN)
-- "Japanese Olympic Committee board member Kaori Yamaguchi said in an opinion piece published on Friday that the Summer Games ... had already lost meaning but that it was too late to cancel..." (Reuters)
-- In other news: "Live streams for radio and TV stations owned by the Cox Media Group, one of the largest media conglomerates in the US, have gone down earlier today in what multiple sources have described as a ransomware attack..." (The Record)
-- The NYT with a UFO report spoiler alert: "Government finds no evidence that aerial sightings were alien spacecraft." Sure... (NYT)  ACLU calls for "binding limits" on DOJ
The ACLU on Thursday condemned the Trump DOJ's seizing of reporters' records and called for action to ensure it doesn't happen in the future. "While we welcome President Biden's promise to put a stop to these dangerous demands, existing executive branch policies have proven inadequate," the ACLU said. "Congress and the administration need to impose binding limits that will protect reporters going forward..."
>> Erick Tucker writes that "while Biden's stated commitment that his Justice Department won't seize reporters' phone records has won support from press freedom groups, it remains unclear if that promise can be kept..."
>> Erik Wemple asks: "Consider that the records seizures in these cases occurred three years after the reportorial activities in question. How, then, could the Justice Department justify plowing ahead with the secret subpoenas?" FRIDAY PLANNER Avengers Campus opens in Anaheim...
"The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" arrives in theaters and on HBO Max...
WaPo will hold a virtual discussion with Problem Solvers Caucus chairs Brian Fitzpatrick and Josh Gottheimer at 10:30am ET...
🔌: Brian Stelter will be on "Cuomo Prime Time" with the first sneak peek at his newly updated book HOAX.... Judd Legum on this week's Reliable podcast
Brian Stelter writes: "Judd Legum, the founder of the Popular Information newsletter, joined me on the pod to discuss his three years of independent reporting on people, politics and power. Legum was on Substack before it was cool, so to speak. So he talked about the power of the newsletter format; his sources of info; and his reporting on 'the delta between what corporations say' and what they do. Tune in via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app..." "Maggie Haberman is right"
Evergreen headline, right? That was the headline on a Thursday story from National Review's Charles C.W. Cooke. Cooke said he had confirmed through his sources that Trump does believe he can be reinstated over the summer. "I can attest, too, that Trump is trying hard to recruit journalists, politicians, and other influential figures to promulgate this belief," Cooke wrote. Jim Acosta also confirmed Haberman's reporting. "What do you think of this theory?" Trump has asked some advisors, a source told Acosta. The source added that "people have told him that it's not true..."
Lemon's take
Don Lemon on Thursday argued that journalists should be careful not to "over-inflate" Trump's deranged ideas and "give too much of a voice to it." Trump, Lemon said on CNN's "New Day," is "the Wizard of Oz – he's the man behind the curtain and doesn't have any power." Lemon added, "His power comes from us and that we keep promoting him and we keep talking about him." What Lemon said rings true and can also be applied to fringe characters like Marjorie Taylor Greene. That's not to say that there should be zero coverage. It's about proportion... FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- "Experts call it a 'clown show,' but the Arizona 'audit' is a disinformation blueprint," Miles Parks reports... (NPR)
-- Alex Kaplan writes about how Michael Flynn's comments endorsing a Myanmar-like coup have been celebrated in far-right corners of the web... (MMFA)
-- Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng report on MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's "bizarre new lawsuit" that is "littered with ominous-sounding quotes from sci-fi dystopian fiction like the 'Terminator' franchise..." (Daily Beast) Fox's Fauci fixation
Fox has been awfully interested this week in looking back at Dr. Anthony Fauci's record and scrutinizing his early remarks. The right-wing talk channel's airwaves have been saturated with hosts knocking his early comments on masks and the origins of coronavirus. Which is awfully ironic coming from the same network that got so much about Covid wrong from the outset.
You'll remember — as I wrote back in the early stages of the pandemic – that Fox spent weeks downplaying the virus and comparing it to the seasonal flu. Then the network spent weeks and weeks promoting miracle cures while running cover for Trump. Criticizing Fauci is fair game, but Fox hosts and commentators doing so might also want to consider taking a look at the dangerous info they put out...
>> Related: Philip Bump writes about how Tucker Carlson has leveraged "yet another document dump to accuse Fauci of criminality..." Facebook to end special rules for politicians?
"Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that mostly shields politicians from the content moderation rules that apply to other users, a sharp reversal that could have global ramifications for how elected officials use the social network," The Verge's Alex Heath scooped Thursday. The change, Heath noted, comes after the Facebook Oversight Board critiqued the platform for doling out special rules to politicians. Heath also reported, via two sources, that Facebook "also plans to shed light on the secretive system of strikes it gives accounts for breaking its content rules..."
Discontent over handling of international affairs
Some Facebook employees are upset with the way their company has handled international affairs, Sheera Frenkel and Mike Isaac of the NYT reported Thursday. Frenkel and Isaac spoke to more than half a dozen sources who said discontent "has surged" internally, noting that Facebook has recently complied with India's demands to remove posts critical of its coronavirus response and the move to scrub posts from Palestinian activists. "There's a feeling among people at Facebook that this is a systematic approach, one which favors strong government leaders over the principles of doing what is right and correct," Ashraf Zeitoon, Facebook's former head of policy for the Middle East and North Africa region, told NYT... Would you pay for Twitter Blue?
Kerry Flynn writes: "It's no edit button, but Twitter has released new features to enhance the platform including undo tweet, bookmark folders and reader mode. They're all exclusive to a new subscription product called Twitter Blue, which is only available in Canada and Australia for now. As Digiday's Max Willens notes, 'Interesting that Twitter went feature-heavy rather than content/experience-heavy for Blue.' Of course, this is only the first iteration of Twitter Blue. Twitter previously teased plans to do more with Scroll, and it is charging for content with its newsletter platform, Revue..." FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- Caleb Howe writes about Twitter's Trending Topics and contends that "the impartiality is rare, the fairness is rarer, and the accuracy, which should be as close to 100% as possible, can seem like an afterthought..." (Mediaite)
-- "Facebook has promoted Marne Levine, its current vice president of global partnerships, business and corporate development, to the newly created role of chief business officer," Sara Fischer reports... (Axios)
-- Last month FB took down "more than 200 fake accounts, 55 pages and 12 groups that were part of two networks trying to manipulate public debate on its platforms," Carrie Mihalcik reports... (CNET) BuzzFeed "strongly condemns" sentencing of source
BuzzFeed on Thursday denounced the sentencing of a former Treasury Department official who was sentenced to six months in prison for leaking baking documents to the outlet. "Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards is a brave whistleblower," BuzzFeed said in a statement. "She fought to warn the public about grave risks to America's national security, first through the official whistleblower process, and then through the press. She did so, despite tremendous personal risk, because she believed she owed it to the country she loves." BuzzFeed added that it "supports the actions of whistleblowers and strongly condemns" Edwards' sentence... The Atlantic's union drive
Kerry Flynn writes: "Playbook scooped a union drive at The Atlantic. Staffers haven't formally announced their intention to unionize, but two anonymous staffers told Playbook 'they believe they have the numbers necessary to join the NewsGuild.' Management is reportedly aware of the effort and has come in front of the campaign. Last Friday, CEO Nicholas Thompson announced new compensation tiers. IMO, that type of response seems to provide more reason to unionize. The Atlantic and NewsGuild PR did not respond to requests for comment..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR By Kerry Flynn:
-- More than 30 newsrooms signed the Climate Emergency Statement, but some major outlets said privately "they won't sign. The phrase 'climate emergency' sounded like activism..." (CJR)
-- Aubrey Nagle looks back at how local news outlets in Philadelphia covered the George Floyd protests... (Poynter)
On cable news ratings...
Brian Lowry emails: "A quick footnote on cable news ratings, and the year-to-year decline, which Deadline's Ted Johnson detailed, being seen across the board: Last year was almost a perfect storm in terms of the news cycle (pandemic, election, Trump), which understandably inflated news viewing. One could argue that the drop – while not necessarily good news for cable networks or websites that rely on people constantly refreshing the page, as well as the people that own them – is actually a relatively good sign for our collective mental health." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- Naomi Osaka's decision to drop out of the French Open has "left sports and the journalists who cover them grappling with questions about what athletes owe the press and, in turn, what leagues and tournaments owe the players," Ben Strauss writes... (WaPo)
-- Happy 30th CNN anniversary to Elizabeth Cohen! "New Day" paid tribute to Cohen on Thursday. "I ended up here by a fluke," Cohen said. "I grew up in Boston and I thought, 'Oh, I'll go to Atlanta for a couple years and come home.' I never did ... I feel very lucky that I landed here and that I got to stay here..." (CNN)
-- Congratulations to Sanjay Gupta! He was awarded the Brooks Jackson Prize for Fact Checking for his work knocking down Covid misinfo... (APPC)
-- Jenée Desmond-Harris has officially taken over as Slate's new Dear Prudence. Here's her first column... (Slate) "AMC cashes in on meme stock mania"
That's the headline on this story from NYT's Matt Phillips. Phillips wrote that despite a "conflicted sales pitch" – in which AMC warned investors not to purchase its stock because it is extremely high risk — the theater giant "sold over half a billion dollars in new shares on Thursday in a matter of hours." Phillips noted that it is "the latest sign that the company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy months ago, is embracing its status as a meme stock..."
>> AMC's surge does not mean that the theater industry's inherent problems are solved, Frank Pallotta cautions... (CNN)
>> Yun Li explains "why AMC's stock surge is different than GameStop..." (CNBC)  Stephen King adapts his own book with disappointing results
Brian Lowry emails: "Stephen King normally sells the rights to his books and then disavows the results, but he has taken a much more hands-on approach with 'Lisey's Story,' writing every episode of the eight-part Apple TV+ miniseries. Unfortunately, the results of this muddled effort – starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen – still lands in the shallow end of the King cinematic pool, which has been getting more crowded again since 'It' hit it big in theaters..." FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX -- Lisa Kudrow almost missed this touching "Friends" reunion moment - and you may have too...
-- Marsai Martin had no idea she was co-starring with Kim Kardashian in "Paw Patrol..."
-- Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil left the stage and said his voice is "gone" during a recent appearance at a music festival... SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST....
Pet of the day!
ProPublica's Peter Elkind emails: "Our son's dog Rosa, ready for Memorial Day weekend watersports!"   Thank you for reading. Email us your feedback anytime. I'll be back here tomorrow... Share this newsletter:
You are receiving this message because you subscribed to CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter.
® © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc.
Our mailing address is: | ||||||||||||
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
Top Articles
-
Baird and NWSL general counsel Lisa Levine were ousted Friday in the wake of a rep...
-
Plus: The high costs of housing, school board politics and alien life abroad July 16, 2021 View in B...
Our Hindi Website
www.hindi.men
